Davids Sling misses Syrian SS-21 missiles during first interception

Investigation teams consisting of representatives of the manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the Missile Defense Organization of the Ministry of Defense and the Israeli Air Force opened an investigation Monday morning on the Golan Heights.

David's Sling, which is part of Israel's multilayered missile defense program, operates in the layer above the Iron Dome and under Arrow systems.

The scarf of David (photo archive) (Photo: Department of Defense)

medium and long range missiles and rockets and cruise missiles fired from 40 to 300 km.

The Monday morning incident was the first use of David's Sling against enemy projectiles since he was declared operational in March 2017.

It is expected that the defense establishment will be able to indicate the reason why the interception failed within the next two or three days. The cause of the failure is probably technological in nature, and unrelated to the Air Force system operators, who made the reasonable decision to launch the two interceptor missiles from the permanent site of David's Sling in the North.

Unlike the Iron Dome system, David's Sling is not mobile. But just like Arrow systems, David Sling provides coverage of his fixed location to the entire country.

It is possible that the decision to destroy one of the interception missiles in the air near the Kinneret is a bad decision, because in retrospect, the interceptor could have continued its flight to # 39 to hit the big target coming from the southeast.

David Sling is supposed to be able to confront the two SS-21 ground-to-ground missiles built by the Soviets, which were fired Monday morning by the Syrian army against the rebels. The missiles, called SS-21 by NATO, are called "Tochka" in Russian, meaning "dot", which indicates their accuracy.

SS-21 missiles were developing in the 1970s by the Soviet Union and were sold to the Syrian army. The range of the missile is 14 to 70 kilometers. It weighs 2.5 tons, of which 480 kilograms constitute the warhead, which disperses a large amount of spray when it reaches its target. Its diameter is 65 centimeters. The SS-21 is fired from a single launcher, such as a truck, and is directed into the air by winged devices.

Israeli detection systems are designed to identify and catalog it – according to all its familiar attributes – relatively quickly, in seconds, and act accordingly.