Air defense conscripts are set to replace reservists at the hastily deployed
fifth Iron Dome battery, which is protecting the greater Tel Aviv metropolitan
area.
Since being deployed 10 days ago, the battery intercepted several
Fajr-5 and M75 long-range rockets fired at central Israel from Gaza in the
course of the recent confrontation with Hamas. The IAF is preparing to receive
more Iron Dome batteries soon, said Col. Zvika Haimovitch, commander of the Air
Defense Command.
“We’re shortening the time frame it takes to get the
batteries deployed, in order to adjust ourselves to the operational reality,
which is changing before our eyes,” Haimovitch said.
During the conflict,
the system successfully shot down 85 percent of incoming enemy rockets directed
at populated areas. It could also be deployed in the North to deal with
Hezbollah’s short-range and some medium-range rockets.
“Iron Dome is just
one component of a whole puzzle of systems, like the Arrow [anti-ballistic
missile system], which operates higher up,” Haimovitch said. “In the
not-too-distant future, we will also have David’s Sling.”
The David’s
Sling defense system, designed to stop long-range rockets and cruise missiles,
is designed to cope with Hezbollah’s arsenal of projectiles, and was
successfully tested this week in the South. In the test, a David’s Sling battery
stationed in southern Israel fired a two-stage interceptor missile and stopped an
incoming missile.
The system is designed to fill the gap between Iron
Dome’s short-range protection and the Arrow 2 long-range ballistic missile
defense program.