Israel has successfully completed an air defense exercise that tested the abilities of the Iron Dome missile defense system to intercept cruise missiles for the first time, the Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday.
Amid the backdrop of the threat of Iranian cruise missiles, Tehran’s influence in the Syrian civil war, and its proxy in Yemen, the Houthi rebel group, Israel Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin on Wednesday said, ‘The security challenge is becoming more complex. In addition to the missiles and rockets, there are also attack drones and cruise missiles now.’
Israel’s David’s Sling air defense system made its operational debut Monday, when an interceptor missile was launched as a precaution against ballistic missiles fired within neighboring Syria, the military said.
The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act passed by the US Senate yesterday allocates $500 million for Israeli missile programs and $50 million for a joint US-Israeli program for combating the tunnels threat.
As tensions mount between Israel and its neighbors, the country’s David’s Sling missile defense system will be operationally ready in the next two weeks.
The joint Israeli-US missile defense system known as David’s Sling — part of Israel’s multi-layered missile defense program — is nearing operational readiness and has been cleared to be presented to potential customers abroad, such as Poland.
The White House said Tuesday that it was opposed to a move by the House of Representatives to increase funding for Israeli missile defense procurement by an additional $455 million above the administration’s budget request for the 2017 fiscal year.
Following recent assessments on the significant rocket threat posed by Hezbollah to the Israeli home front, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday that it carried out a successful test of the US-Israel developed David’s Sling anti-missile system, which is designed to shoot down shortto medium-range missiles, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved $351 million for the Iron Dome, and $270 million for the Arrow 3 and David’s Sling missile defense systems.