The Defense Ministry completed a major, unprecedented air defense exercise this month, which tested the abilities of the country’s three tiers of missile defense systems against a variety of aerial threats, officials said Tuesday.
In the drill, which the ministry deemed a glowing success, the various air defense detection systems and batteries were required to communicate with one another and intercept several types of targets, including rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles and — critically — cruise missiles simultaneously.
The exercise, made up of a series of trials, was focused primarily on testing the capabilities of a new version of the medium-range David’s Sling air defense system, which is currently under development, as well as new capabilities of the Iron Dome.
“The success of this series of tests represents an important milestone in the operational capability of the State of Israel in its self-defense against existing and future threats in the region,” the Defense Ministry said.
David’s Sling, which represents the middle tier of Israel’s air defense array, was pitted against ballistic missiles, which follow a fixed and predetermined trajectory, as well as the more difficult-to-hit cruise missiles, which effectively function as small, fast, unmanned airplanes, capable of changing direction and thus better able to avoid air defenses.
“The results of the tests will allow the development engineers to continue to improve the capabilities of the [David’s Sling] system,” the Defense Ministry said. READ MORE
