BICOM

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) used its David’s Sling air defence system for the first time yesterday when it launched two interceptors against missiles approaching Israeli territory from Syria.

Sirens went off in the Upper Galilee and the Golan Heights yesterday morning as two Russian ‘Tochka’ medium range surface-to-surface missiles were fired from Syrian territory. The ‘Tochka’ can carry a 500kg warhead with a range of 120 kilometres.

Israel’s air defence system initially calculated that the missiles would land in northern Israel and decided to destroy them with interceptor missiles from a David’s Sling’s battery (also known as Magic Wand), which cost US$1m each. The IDF later concluded that both missiles would land in Syrian territory so the danger was averted. An investigation has been launched to determine why the interceptors did not hit their targets.

The IDF said the Syrian army fired the missiles toward an ISIS enclave in the border triangle between Israel, Jordan and Syria.

David’s Sling was jointly developed by Israeli defence contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the American defence contractor Raytheon and became fully operational in April. It is designed to intercept aircraft, drones, tactical ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, with a range of 200km.

It forms part of Israel’s multi-tiered missile defence system. The lowest layer is Iron Dome, capable of intercepting short-range (up to 70 km) missiles and mortar shells like those fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip. The highest layer is the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, which are intended to engage long-range ballistic missiles. The Arrow was deployed for the first time on 17 March 2017, when it destroyed an incoming Syrian anti-aircraft missile.