Poland to buy U.S made Patriot missiles

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This sale comes only months after Washington vetoed a proposed sale of the Israeli made system “David’s Sling”

The announcement regarding this new sale is causing much consternation in the Israeli defense establishment, coming as it does only a few months after Washington vetoed a sale to Poland of the co-developed “David’s Sling” air defense systems.

“David’s Sling”, co-produced by American Raytheon and Israeli Rafael, is designed to shoot down heavy rockets and cruise missiles. Earlier this month Rafael and the Israeli missile defense organization (IMDO) carried out a series of successful tests on the long range air defense system. The “David’s Sling” system includes an interceptor allowing the verification of the destruction of the threat, in order to avoid the need for a second interceptor.

The system will constitute a part of the multi layered defense system Israel is building to defend itself from rockets and missiles. The first layer is the “Iron Dome”, also developed by Rafael, designed to intercept short range rockets. The “Iron Dome” system’s operational abilities were demonstrated during the last conflict with Hamas, in operation “Protective Edge”. “David’s Sling” will serve as the second layer of defense, with the Arrow-2 and Arrow -3 serving as the third anti-ballistic missile layer.

The “David’s Sling” system is designed to intercept rockets with a range of 70 to 250 km, though the range will lengthen in the future. The system is also designed to intercept cruise missiles. This cruise missiles interception capability was included, according to Israeli sources, based on the thinking that “the nature of the threats is constantly changing,”. The sources added, that with all the upgrades performed on the U.S Patriot systems, it is still based on technology that was developed “many, many years ago”.

Prior to making its choice Poland was also considering buying the French Aster-30 system.