IMDO, MDA conduct integrated Iron Dome, DSWS live-fire tests

The Israel Missile Defense Organisation (IMDO), a division of the Directorate for Defense Research & Development within the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMOD), in association with the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA), executed an unprecedented series of complex and co-ordinated air- and missile-defence live-fire intercept tests with the medium-range David’s Sling Weapon System (DSWS) and Iron Dome short-range missile-defence system in November and early December.

DSWS and Iron Dome respectively represent the current middle and lower tier of Israel’s deployed multi-layered air and missile defence system. The upper tier is delivered by the Arrow Weapon System, deploying the Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 anti-tactical ballistic missile exoatmospheric interceptors.

A night time launch of a Stunner inceptor from a DSWS during a series of live-fire interoperability tests in Israel in November and December. (Israel Ministry of Defense)

Led by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems (the co-design authority, with Raytheon Missiles & Defence, of DSWS and the design authority for Iron Dome), the tests, designated ‘David’s Sling System Test No 7’, validated the operational interoperability of the Iron Dome and DSWS systems within Israel’s integrated air- and missile-defence architecture.

“With these series of tests, we demonstrated for the first time an orchestrated response to cruise [and] ballistic missiles, unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), and other complex and representative future air threats through an integrated, distributed, and multi-layered national air-defence capability,” Brigadier Geneneral (Reserve) Pini Yungman, executive vice-president and head of Rafael Advanced Defence Systems’ Air and Missile Defense Division told Janes .