As the Middle East braces for Israel’s response to an unprecedented Iranian ballistic missile attack, the US has sent missiles to Israel to ensure any retaliation from Tehran does not cause significant damage.
Below, we look at Israel’s three-tiered air defence system to see how the country has been coping with attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran – and how it could defend against another assault from Tehran.
The Iron Dome, developed after the 2006 “Summer War” between Israel and Hezbollah, is the most battle-tested air defence system in the world. It is also the country’s most famous, though it is only one of three tiers of air defence.
For years it has shot down short-range rockets and drones fired at Israel mainly from the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
And in the past year, more than 20,000 rockets and missiles have been fired at Israel over the past year from Gaza and Lebanon alone, according to official Israeli figures.
While most of the missiles will be intercepted by separate tiers of Israel’s air defence systems, the lion’s share of the work has been carried out by the Iron Dome.
The Israeli military has previously claimed that the Iron Dome destroys around 90 per cent of the rockets it targets. The air defence missiles it uses, known as “Tamirs”, cost around $50,000 (£38,200) each.
There are Iron Dome batteries sited across Israel. Each battery is made up of three or four launchers, each containing 20 interceptor missiles.
The second tier of Israel’s air defence system is known as “David’s Sling”, called “Magic Wand” in Hebrew.
While the Iron Dome can target hostile projectiles up to 70 km (43 miles) away, and at an altitude of 10 km, David’s Sling is focused on downing longer-range rockets, cruise missiles and medium-range or long-range ballistic missiles up to 300 km away, and at an altitude of 15 km.
It started operating in 2017 and was jointly developed by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the US company Raytheon.
It was used in September this year to shoot down a ballistic missile fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon.
The Arrow systems, known as Arrow 2 and Arrow 3, are aimed at intercepting larger ballistic missiles from a considerably longer distance away.
Arrow 2 is designed to destroy short-range and medium-range ballistic missiles while they are flying through the upper atmosphere, up to 50 km. They can detect missiles from 500 km away, though only shoot them down from within 100 km.
