Iran has reportedly launched an attack on Israel, launching dozens of drones

[Celerity]

30. As Iran Threatens to Attack, These Are Israel's Air Defenses

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-11/what-are-israel-s-air-defenses-as-iran-threatens-to-attack

https://archive.ph/GUtcA

Israel is braced for the possibility that Iran or its proxies will launch major missile or drone strikes on the country, based on intelligence assessments. Over the past decade-and-a-half, Israel has upgraded its air defenses considerably, adding new systems for interceptions of ballistic missiles fired from as far away as 2,400 kilometers. That range includes Yemen, Syria and Iraq, where militant groups allied with Iran are based, as well as Iran itself. While these new systems passed years of testing to become fully operational and have notched a few successful interceptions in the battlefield, they have not yet dealt with a large-scale attack.

1. What air defenses does Israel have?

The most active and well-known of Israel’s air defenses is Iron Dome, which has intercepted thousands of rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2011. However, Iron Dome is designed for missiles and drones with a short range, from 4 kilometers to 70 kilometers, and is just one of the various advanced missile defense systems in place in Israel. In 2017, Israel installed a medium-to-long-range interceptor known as David’s Sling, which was co-developed by Israel’s Rafael Defense Industries and the US-based Raytheon Technologies. David’s Sling is designed to detect and destroy ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones, at a reported range of up to 200 kilometers. That range covers Gaza as well as southern Lebanon, where the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah is believed to have 150,000 missiles, some of them precision-guided. Israel also possesses the advanced Arrow missile defense system, made up of Arrow 2 and Arrow 3. Developers have said the Arrow system can intercept missiles fired from up to 2,400 kilometers away and can do it above Earth’s atmosphere. The Israeli military also announced this month that a mobile, maritime version of Iron Dome — known as C-Dome — was operational and had successfully knocked down a hostile drone launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran. The military is also testing another system called Iron Beam, which uses lasers to intercept projectiles fired at close range at less expense than the Iron Dome. Iron Beam is not expected to be operational before mid-2025.

2. How effective are these systems?

Iron Dome has intercepted 90% of missiles heading toward populated areas, according to Israel’s military. However, the other air defense systems were only more recently introduced and data on their real-time effectiveness is not available. The army has acknowledged that its air defenses, including Iron Dome, can be overwhelmed if a large number of projectiles are fired simultaneously. Small drones fired by Hezbollah and the Houthis have also been able to slip through Israel’s defenses since October. That’s when war broke out between Israel and the Iran-backed militant Palestinian group Hamas, prompting other groups supported by Iran to pile on. Still, in recent years, the military said the few cases of real-time response in battle were successful. Arrow 3, which was jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Boeing Co., notched its first battlefield success in November 2023 when it shot down a missile fired by the Houthis toward southern Israel. David’s Sling knocked down Gaza rockets in fighting that erupted last May.

3. What’s led to fears of an Iranian attack on Israel?

The war between Israel and Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, has aggravated the so-called shadow war between Israel and Iran. Iran blamed Israel for an April 1 airstrike on the country’s diplomatic buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and vowed to retaliate. The strike killed seven Iranian military personnel, including a top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s premier security force.

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