Jul 23, 2018 - קוד להטמעה: Unlike the Iron Dome system, David's Sling is not mobile. David's Sling is meant to be able to take on the two Soviet-made surface-to-surface SS-21 missiles, which were fired Monday morning by the Syrian army against the rebels.
This is David's Sling. The IAF’s newest air defense system is about to make Israel’s skies a lot safer. It's capable of intercepting missiles fired towards Israel by enemy countries such as Iran and Syria. It will protect Israelis against large-caliber rockets, short-range ballistic missiles, and other developing threats.
It's scheduled to be operational in two weeks.A Palestinian illegal arms network bought hundreds of weapon parts off the internet - leading Israeli security forces to their door.For more from the IDF.
In a first, Israeli's Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile system intercepted a surface-to-air missile fired at Israeli Air Force (IAF) jets that had struck targets in southern Syria. The action began overnight at around 2:30 am local time when IAF jets supposedly attacked a weapons shipment intended for Hezbollah. Shortly after, the jets were fired upon by Syrian surface-to-air missiles as they were flying back into Israeli airspace.
At least one of the missiles was engaged by an Arrow 3 battery located in northeast Israel. Nobody on the ground was injured in the incident, and although, Israel says the jets made it back to base without issue. The missiles were supposedly fired from southern Syria by Assad’s military, and traveled over Jordan towards the Jerusalem area. They were apparently SA-5 (NATO reporting name: Gammon) surface-to-air missiles, which have been in Syrian service for many years. Although dated, these are very large missiles that feature a fairly long-range and high operating altitude. The IDF said the missiles did not pose a threat to Israel or its fighters that were close to or already in Israeli airspace when the Arrow 3 engaged.
With all this in mind, it may seem puzzling why the Arrow 3 was used to engage the Syrian SAMs, but there may be one easy explanation. Arrow 3 is a, and was never meant to counter surface-to-air missiles or even aircraft. It was primarily designed to counter ballistic missiles launched form Iran, but it can also be used to counter those launched from Arab states and even work as an anti-satellite weapon. Arrow, now in its third evolutionary configuration, has been developed over 20 plus years. It occupies the 'top tier' of Israel's layered missile defense concept, with David's Sling, (and the Patriot to some degree) and finally Iron Dome fulfilling its lower layers.
![Sling Sling](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125381347/208508737.jpg)
Arrow 3 just became operation in January and this was the first operational use of an Arrow missile. It is possible that some of the SA-5s, or whatever missiles were launched by Syrian forces, were fired in 'ballistic' mode as a defensive measure. During a ballistic launch, SAMs are fired unguided toward a suspected threat to put that threat on the defensive, or as an act of desperation because the target can't be successfully acquired by the system's fire control radar.
The missiles either self destruct once reaching a high altitude or continue on their ballistic trajectory once their rocket motors burn out. The news of yet another Israeli airstrike in Syria and retaliation SAM launches by Syrian forces comes after some experts posited that Israel is already using their two F-35Is in an offensive role over Syria, even though the jets were just delivered a few months ago.
It has also been claimed that S-300 SAM systems—which only the Russians possess in Syria—had been engaging the F-35Is and other IAF aircraft in recent months. But what is true is that IAF aircraft have been fired on before while operating over Syria and Russia's tacit agreement with Israel for 'deconfliction' of airspace over the war-torn country seems to. Still, there is zero evidence that Russia has anything to do with attacks on Israeli jets that have carried out airstrikes in Syria on targets related to the. Israeli airstrikes seem to have accelerated in recent months following the fall of Aleppo to the Assad regime, and Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters, with strikes occurring on what seems like monthly basis since then.
This incident appears to be the most serious engagement between the re-empowered Assad regime and Israel since the Syrian civil war began almost six years ago to the day. Israel has been able (at least to public knowledge) to penetrate Syrian airspace since Operation Orchard—the 2007 bombing of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site near Dier ez-Zor. This has largely been possible due to a cocktail of measures that rely heavily on advanced electronic warfare and cyber attacks on Syria's air defense network. Since the Syrian civil war began, Assad's air defense system has remained largely intact.