David’s Sling for export?
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עברית (Hebrew)
Rockets in the hands of armies and terror groups have become a major problem. They are relatively cheap and very deadly.
There are indications that some countries are interested in an efficient rocket interceptor. This may explain the fact that Raytheon is already talking with some potential customers in the U.S. and in other countries for the David’s Sling air defense system it is developing with Rafael.
Three months ago, the system completed a series of interception tests in Israel in which it achieved hits against different types of aerial threats.
According to Rafael this series of tests has been a major milestone before the first system is to be deployed by the Israeli air force.
The company says that the last series of tests proved that the systems can deal with different types of aerial threats in the atmosphere “including cruise missiles”.
Rafael claims that the system is currently the most capable air defense system against all types of threats in the atmosphere and it uses a technology that has no equivalent.”
In the last series of tests the “Stunner” interceptor of the system achieved kinetic kill against some of the targets.
According to the Israeli company Raytheon the American subcontractor and it, both see a big export potential.
Unlike the “Iron Dome” rocket interceptor, which has a relative small footprint, a fact that requires a large number of batteries to protect Israel, the “David’s Sling” has a much larger footprint and “a limited number” of batteries can cover Israel.
The Rafael senior official said that the “David’s Sling” is designed to work together with other system like the “Iron Dome” and Arrow the Israeli developed ballistic missiles interceptor.
