David’s Sling (Photo Israel’s Defense Ministry)
Even as the Iron Swords War in Gaza rages on, Israel’s defense industries continue to make major deals for their products. In just the past week Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) closed a $1.2 billion deal with Azerbaijan for the Barak MX system air defense system. Israel’s Ministry of Defense also sealed a deal to provide Finland with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ David’s Sling anti-missile defense system technology, which is part of Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome system, for $340 million.
The agreement with Finland was signed by the director general of Israel’s Ministry of Defense, Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Eyal Zamir. It comes as Israel’s antimissile defenses are proving their capabilities on a daily basis. The Terrorist group Hamas has launched almost 7,000 rockets and missiles at Israel from Gaza since its barbaric attack on October 7. And the terrorist group Hezbollah has also been launching rockets into northern Israel from Lebanon. Few of these have hit targets, with the overwhelming majority either shot down by Israel, or falling harmlessly in open areas.
The David’s Sling is one of the world’s leading systems for intercepting advanced threats, including ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft and drones. The system has demonstrated high-performance capabilities in the ongoing war in a range of challenging scenarios.
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The David’s Sling system, together with the Arrow systems, the Iron Dome, and the C-Dome (the naval configuration of the Iron Dome), forms an essential layer of the State of Israel’s air and missile defense array. The Israel Ministry of Defense, through the IMDO, leads their development efforts. The primary contractor for the system is Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, with Raytheon Missile Systems as a sub-contractor. The MMR is developed by Elta, a subsidiary of IAI, and Elbit Systems is the developer of the BMC command center.
The David’s Sling system is jointly developed by the IMDO within the Israel Ministry of Defense’s DDR&D and the United States Missile Defense Agency (MDA) together with primary contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
As for the Barak MX system, AI says that it an advanced Air & Missile Defense System that provides a single integrated solution for multiple simultaneous aerial threats from different sources and different ranges.
BARAK MX allows users to tailor their system configurations to face “any threat, in any mission and in any battle condition.”
IAI CEO Boaz Levy said that in the wake of the Iron Swords War, “AI is in an accelerated process of providing systems and solutions for Israel’s security forces in all theaters, at sea, on land and in the air and in space and is at the same time is also working for all our customers around the world. This deal joins a range of deals for air defense systems that have been recently signed, which strengthen the company’s status as a global leader in the field.”
