On April 13-14, 2024, in retaliation for the air raid on the embassy, Iran suddenly launched a full-scale strike on its top rival, Israel. In addition to the core IRGC, Shiite militias in Iraq, Allah guerrillas in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen have joined forces to launch a modern, textbook saturation attack.
However, the Israelis, with their far superior air defense network, easily intercepted the vast majority of missiles and drones. Here is a summary of the specific models and the approximate parameters of these cutting-edge equipment.
Arrow anti-missile air defense system
1991 Israeli city bombed by Iraqi Scud missiles
As early as the end of the 20th century, Israel had the strongest air force in the Middle East, but it was quite weak in preventing strategic weapons. On the other hand, the surrounding Arab countries have purchased Scud short-range ballistic missiles based on the Soviet-style army building mentality. Not only did it appear frequently in the Iran-Iraq War, but later it fell into the city of Tel Aviv due to the outbreak of the Gulf War. Although only one person was killed, it had a huge impact on the morale of the people.
Before and after the Cold War Israel walked around the countries that used Scud missiles
After the fact, Israel hurriedly purchased Patriot air defense systems from the United States, and at the same time improved the Hawk medium-range anti-aircraft missiles, which were introduced in earlier years. However, they have doubts about the performance of both, and are more worried about the speed of the comprehensive spread of Soviet and Russian offensive weapons. Therefore, he took the initiative to cooperate with Boeing and began to develop his own arrow air defense system.
Lying guns in the Gulf War allowed Israel to introduce Patriot 2 anti-aircraft missiles
In 1990-93, the first Arrow-1 anti-aircraft missiles began to be test-fired, which was also the first attempt by the Israelis to develop an area anti-missile weapon. Due to a lack of experience and the necessary technical reserves, a series of experiments were unsuccessful. Either it deliberately self-destructs for fear that the missile may deviate from orbit, or it explodes in the air due to the failure of components. It will even be dragged down by the computer failure of the ground control, and there will be an embarrassing situation of jamming and unable to ignite. It wasn't until 1994 that he barely hit a target bomb.
The original Arrow 1 anti-aircraft missile was abandoned because it was too chicken
On the other hand, the design of the Arrow-1 anti-aircraft missile itself has also been criticized. Due to the use of two-stage solid propulsion, the total length of the missile body is 7.5 meters, the diameter of the missile body is 1.2 meters, and the weight is about 2,000 kilograms. Despite its vector propulsion capabilities, it was still complained of being too bulky. Coupled with the fact that Israel had already purchased the Patriot system at that time, it was no longer interested in such a semi-finished product with a range of 50 km.
In 1996, the Arrow 2 anti-aircraft missile was successfully test-fired
After that, the Israeli military set about redesigning the smaller, faster and more lethal Arrow-2 anti-aircraft missile. After three years of improvement, it finally produced results at the beginning of the new century. During the Anatolian Eagle exercise in 2001, the all-new Arrow-2 successfully hit a simulated target 100 kilometers away, thus confirming its actual deployment capability. But the Israelis were not satisfied, and almost frantically added various performance patches, including the green pine phased array radar that can detect a range of 500 kilometers, the Jinyu advanced command and control system, the flight speed of up to Mach 9, and the weight of the projectile body of nearly 1,300 kilograms. Until around 2011, it had the ability to intercept targets outside the atmosphere, and even accurately destroyed incoming missiles with only impact.
2008 Test launch site of the improved Arrow-2 missile
On March 17, 2017, the Arrow-2 missile participated in actual combat for the first time and successfully shot down a Syrian S-200 anti-aircraft missile launched at a national warplane. Although the case here looks a little strange, one can not be surprised by the fact that the "professional sparring" arranged by the Israelis for the Arrow-2 missiles does not come as well. In fact, the Arrow 1 missile, which was abandoned at the beginning, was later heavily modified into a simulated target missile. In other words, it is to defeat yesterday's self with today's self, and it is natural to deal with the S-200 that entered service in 1967.
In 2009, the official development of the Arrow 3 anti-aircraft missile began
At the same time, the Israelis have synchronously begun work on the development of the Arrow-3 anti-aircraft missile. Thanks to the guidance of the new Super Green Pine radar, it can shoot at an altitude of 100 kilometers alone, and its actual interception range will be much farther than that. Although the weight of the projectile has increased to 1700 kg, the flight speed is a little faster than that of the Arrow 2. Moreover, it only relies on direct impact to destroy the target, and has considerable anti-satellite capabilities. This makes Israel one of the few countries with a primary space combat capability and the ability to use its technological reserves to improve its allies' air defense networks.
At the end of 2023, the Arrow air defense system has been verified with effective interception capabilities
In 2023, due to the outbreak of conflict in Gaza, Israel was frequently attacked by ballistic missiles by the Houthis. However, the defense network consisting of the Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 missiles was smooth and the future enemy was defeated. First, on October 31, an Arrow-2 successfully intercepted a long-range ballistic missile launched from Yemen. Since the interception took place outside the atmosphere, it was considered the first space engagement in human history. Then, on 9 November, Arrow-3 successfully intercepted another missile fired from Yemen. At this point, almost no one doubts the real capabilities of the Arrow anti-missile air defense system anymore.
The capabilities of the Arrow air defense system have long surpassed the Patriots, which were introduced by Israel in its early years
David Slingling medium-range air defense system
The David Slingling air defense system, which focuses on medium-range interception
Of course, the price of the arrow anti-missile system is quite expensive, and the operating cost of tens of billions of dollars is bound to be saved. At the same time, potential enemy countries around Israel are more dependent on ordinary intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Thus, the David's slingling system, which was converted to intercept such targets, was born.
David's slings also need to intercept various targets such as fighter planes, drones, cruise missiles, etc
As a replacement for the older Hawk missile and the earlier version of the Patriot, the David Slingling was developed in 2006 and was fully operational by 2017. In addition to Israel's native Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the main contractor also includes the well-known American company Raytheon. Not only can it deal with all kinds of short-range or medium-range ballistic missiles, but it can also calmly face the combined attack of large rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles, low-altitude cruise missiles and advanced fighters.
The David Slingling anti-aircraft missile being test-fired
According to currently published data, the range of the David's slinging system is between 40-250 km. Because it is equipped with a fairly advanced EL/M-2084 active electronically scanned array radar, and the missile itself has a high speed of Mach 7.5, it continues to play a hard-hitting direct impact destruction mode. It can effectively distinguish between the decoy and the actual warhead, and accelerate at the end to obtain additional interception. In the future, it can also be connected to the US-made Patriot air defense system to achieve mutual data sharing and combat command, thereby enhancing the air defense/anti-missile efficiency at medium distances.
U.S. soldiers visiting David's slinging system
On May 10, 2023, David Pellet successfully shot down a Badr-3 rocket flying from Gaza to Tel Aviv. After the outbreak of a full-scale military conflict in the second half of the year, the Ayyash-250 long-range rocket launched by Hamas was successfully intercepted. Although these targets are not high-tech blessings, they are all tricky designs aimed at the blind spots of traditional air defense weapons. Without the David Sling's keen detection capability and efficient rapid reaction rate, it would be difficult to effectively take out these asymmetric weapons that suddenly attack from a range of 8 kilometers.
The success of David's slinging gave Israel the audacity to phase out the Patriot 2
Iron Dome low-altitude defense system
The Iron Dome system is undoubtedly the most famous Israeli anti-aircraft weapon in recent years
However, such an advanced David's slingling system has been overshadowed by another, more down-to-earth weapon in recent years. That is the Iron Dome low-altitude defense system, which has been controversial since the day it entered service. Its original mission was to intercept all kinds of small munitions fired at close range, including rockets that had never been conceived before. However, the special and harsh geopolitical environment forced the Israelis to do everything in this regard.
The basic mission of the Iron Dome is to intercept a large number of incoming rockets
In 2004, Israel's Ministry of Defense ordered the development of the Iron Dome system against Hamas and Allah guerrillas. It is designed to protect towns and important units of all kinds from rogue attacks by small unguided munitions. It is required to cover an area of 150 square kilometers, with a focus on small targets at a distance of 4-70 kilometers. Five years later, the first experimental system successfully hit one Katyusha rocket in flight. Since most of the targets are relatively small, the Iron Dome interceptor missile is only 3 meters long, 160 mm in diameter, and weighs 90 kilograms. Under the guidance of the EL/M-2084 radar of Raytheon in the United States, it approaches the target at a speed of Mach 2.2, and then destroys it with a melee fuse blast.
The Iron Dome system has been performing well since its commissioning
In 2011, the Israeli Air Force officially announced that four Iron Dome systems had begun to be deployed in real combat. Soon, the effectiveness of this new weapon was tested in real combat. When four rockets were fired from inside Gaza City toward the Israeli border, EL/M-2084 radar quickly picked up the target signal and judged that two of them were threatening. In the end, the Tamir anti-aircraft missile successfully completed its mission, allowing the remaining 2 rockets to fall into the uninhabited periphery. In the conflict at the end of the year, the interception success rate of the Iron Dome system reached an astonishing 75%.
The advent of the Iron Dome system has greatly reduced the efficiency of a simple rocket sneak attack
In 2012, the conflict in Gaza City intensified, with Palestinian forces firing more than 300 rockets into Israel. Since militants often need to act at a safe distance at a distance, it is difficult to guarantee the accuracy of unguided munitions. The Iron Dome system deleted 71 key objects during the monitoring phase and intercepted 56 of them. As more Iron Dome systems are deployed to non-border cities, long-range attacks that deliberately extend their range are beginning to be curbed. By the end of the year, the use of the Iron Dome had also increased significantly. Although due to production schedule problems, the Israeli side only deployed 5 systems at this time, but still completed 421 interception operations.
2021 The Iron Dome system intercepting Hamas rockets
In 2021, a military crisis broke out again in the Palestinian region. The Hamas organization used its traditional arts to fire more than 4,300 rockets at Israel. However, the Iron Dome system performed steadily, successfully intercepting about 90% of the targets that would fall in densely populated areas, and also shot down a bomb-carrying drone.
The Iron Dome system can even be used on large patrol boats
It is worth mentioning that the Iron Dome system can even be placed on ordinary patrol ships because of its small size. For example, the Saar-6 class frigates, which have not been in service for a long time, have successfully integrated this advanced defense system. The Israeli Navy replaced the old Baccarat-1 short-range anti-aircraft missile with it, forming a high-to-low configuration with the Barak 8 missile with area air defense capabilities.
A Saar-6 class frigate firing Iron Dome missiles
Ahead
Israel's air defense network shines in the 2024 attack
Obviously, Israel, which is equipped with three major systems, the Arrow, the David's Sling, and the Iron Dome, has undoubtedly built a far ahead air defense/anti-missile network. If we also consider the Patriot 2, which has not yet been fully decommissioned, and the Navy's Barak 8 missile, which is constantly increasing its range, then it is not an exaggeration to claim to be the best in the world.
At the same time, these combat-tested air defense weapons have gradually received large orders from all over the world. Germany, as the former of Europe's military industry, announced the purchase of Arrow 3 anti-aircraft missiles in 2023 to deal with the strategic weapons threat that may come from Russia. Azerbaijan, which has always been at odds with Iran, has also considered whether to make purchases. Prior to this, they had imported the Iron Dome system to strengthen their low-altitude defenses. A similar situation is also seen in Romania, which imported the Iron Dome system in 2018 and by 2023 is determined to introduce Patriot 4 missiles based on the David's slingling system. As for other potential users, the list goes on and on. Every purchase is not only a matter of armament advancement, but also an inevitable expression of political alliance, diplomatic cooperation, and cultural appreciation.
Iran is currently the country with the most experience in ballistic missile warfare in the world
It is no wonder that in 2024, in the face of a well-planned saturation attack by the Iranian side, tiny Israel will stand still like a rock. Yes, Iran is currently the country with the most sufficient combat experience in the use of ballistic missiles in the world, and has the core technology to produce a variety of medium-range/long-range strategic weapons. At the same time, there is also a wealth of asymmetric strike practice, and there is quite a lot of experience in unmanned attack aircraft, advanced cruise missiles, and rockets. In the face of their combined punches, it is as strong as the United States to be afraid of three points, not to mention the small state of Gar with a narrow territory and no room for maneuver.
However, it is true that Israel's armaments are being tested, and the country itself is being recognized by more and more powers. In addition to the traditional ally of the United States, the United States sent naval and air force units to advance and retreat, Britain and France in Europe also sent troops to assist in interception, and Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are traditional Arab countries, have all chosen to cooperate vigorously. There is nothing more than that. As for the lonely brave who choose to stand on the opposite side, I am afraid that they can only experience the endless suffering of being unjustified and helpless in the intracranial climax of declaring their victory.