Israel conducts final successful test of David’s Sling anti-ballistic system

With an eye on threats stemming from Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, Israel conducted a successful and final test of its advanced anti-ballistic missile defense system. 

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced on Monday that it has conducted a successful and final trial on its David’s Sling anti-missile defensive system.

This stage was the last before the system becomes operation, and it is expected to be deployed by Israel’s Air Force (IAF) in 2016.

The final trial, conducted in southern Israel and in conjuncture with the US’ Missile Defense Agency (MDA), tested the anti-missile system’s abilities in a number of scenarios.

Target projectiles were successfully detected by the system radar and interceptors were launched and effectively destroyed the threats.

David’s Sling, known as the Magic Wand in Hebrew, is considered an innovative system and is meant to contend with accurate short and medium-range missiles, adding another layer of defense to Israel’s multi-layer anti-ballistic missile systems and supplementing the Arrow systems.

Such projectiles are in the possession of the Hezbollah terror organization in the north and Hamas in Gaza in the south, including the Iranian-made Zilzal and Fatah 110.

The Ministry of Defense stressed in a statement that the new system, together with other systems deployed and in testing phases, will enable Israel to contend more effectively with threats to the Jewish State.

“The successful trial consists of a milestone in Israel’s operational ability to defend itself against pending threats in the region,’ the Ministry of Defense announced.

Just last week, Israel announced that it had conducted its first successful trial for the Arrow 3 anti-ballistic defense system, which provides outer-atmospheric interception of long-range ballistic missiles.