Israel has multilayered air defenses against attacks by regional adversaries such as Iran, where military sites were hit by Israeli strikes on Saturday in the latest exchange in the escalating conflict between the Middle East rivals.
Israel said it was retaliating for Tehran’s missile attack on Israeli targets on October 1.
Israel has been honing its air defenses since coming under Iraqi Scud salvoes in the 1991 Gulf war, in addition to receiving support from the United States, which said in October it had sent an advanced anti-missile system to Israel to support those defenses.
Here are details of Israel’s missile defenses:
Arrow
The long-range Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 interceptors, developed by Israel with an Iranian missile threat in mind, are designed to engage threats in and outside the atmosphere, respectively. They operate at an altitude that allows for the safe dispersal of any nonconventional warheads.
State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries is the project’s main contractor, while Boeing Company is involved in producing the interceptors.
On October 31, 2023, Israel’s military said it had used the Arrow aerial defense system for the first time since the outbreak three weeks before of the war with Hamas to intercept a surface-to-surface missile fired from the area of the Red Sea towards its territory.
In September last year, Germany signed a letter of commitment with Israel to buy the Arrow-3 system for nearly $4.2 billion.
David’s Sling
The midrange David’s Sling system is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles fired from 100 to 200 kilometers away.
Developed and manufactured jointly by Israel’s state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the U.S. RTX Corporation, formerly known as Raytheon, David’s Sling is also designed to intercept aircraft, drones and cruise missiles.
Iron Dome
The short-range Iron Dome air defense system was built to intercept the kind of rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza.
Developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with U.S. backing, it became operational in 2011. Each truck-towed unit fires radar-guided missiles to blow up short-range threats such as rockets, mortars and drones in midair.
Rafael says it delivered two Iron Dome batteries to the U.S. Army in 2020. Ukraine is seeking a supply as well in its war with Russia, although Israel has so far provided Kyiv with only humanitarian support and civil defenses.
A naval version of the Iron Dome to protect ships and sea-based assets was deployed in 2017.
The system determines whether a rocket is on course to hit a populated area; if not, the rocket is ignored and allowed to land harmlessly.
Iron Dome was originally billed as providing city-size coverage against rockets with ranges of between 4 and 70 kilometers (2.5 to 43 miles), but experts say this has since been expanded.
Laser-based system
Israel’s interception systems cost between tens of thousands and millions of dollars to shoot down incoming threats. Israel is developing a laser-based system to neutralize enemy rockets and drones at an estimated cost of just $2 per interception.
U.S. THAAD system
The U.S. military said on October 21 it had sent the advanced antimissile system THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, to Israel.
THAAD is a critical part of the U.S. military’s air defenses and is designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats in their terminal phase of flight.
