UK to buy Israeli Iron Dome to defend Falklands

The United Kingdom is reportedly set to acquire the successful Israeli Iron Dome air defense system to defend the Falkland Islands.  

By: TPS and World Israel News Staff

The United Kingdom is set to spend  78 million pounds to purchase a missile defense shield based on Israel’s Iron Dome to protect the Falkland Islands, British media reported Wednesday.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the UK will install a Sky Sabre system, which employs the command and control system used by Iron Dome missile defense system. The command and control is system is produced by Mprest for Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

An UK Ministry of Defense spokesperson said that “following an open competition, we selected Rafael  to provide the main computer system which will link our state-of-the-art radars and new Land Ceptor launchers together to boost our defense of the Falkland Islands.”

The procurement from Rafael is part of a  280 million pound defense package for the Falklands announced by the British Ministry of defense in 2015, Israel’s Globes reported.

Natan Barak, chief executive of Mprest, told the Daily Mail that the system “can protect any area worldwide”.

“You have to identify, as fast as you can, which object is in the air, whether it is Great Britain’s or something else, and see if it is a threat,” Barak said. “It also has to be capable of integrating with launchers and missiles. Our system is capable of doing this very fast. We are going to be part of the NATO network and we are going to integrate our system with Britain’s command and control system. They will be able to operate and activate our system to fire on threats.”

The Iron Dome anti-rocket system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells and is part of Israel’s four-tiered air defense apparatus. It has successfully demonstrated its ability to intercept short range missiles fired at Israel by Gaza-based terrorists, and over the past decade it has shot down more than 1,200 such rockets.