David’s Sling – The New Brother of Iron Dome

David’s Sling is designed to fill the fire gap between the Iron Dome and Arrow systems

Introduce

David’s Sling, formerly known as the Magic Wand, is a new generation missile defense system co-developed by the Israeli Rafael Group and the US defense contractor Raytheon.

David’s Sling is designed to fill the fire gap between the Iron Dome and Arrow systems, to intercept enemy planes, drones, tactical ballistic missiles, medium- to long-range rockets and cruise missiles, fired at ranges from 40 km (24.85 miles) to 300 km (186.41 miles). David’s Sling is meant to replace the MIM-23 Hawk and MIM-104 Patriot in the Israeli arsenal.

Interceptor missile

The system’s interceptor missile is the Stunner, designed to intercept the newest generation of tactical ballistic missiles at low altitude, such as the Russian Iskander and the Chinese DF-15 using an on-board dual CCD/IR seekers to distinguish between decoys and the actual warhead of the missile, in addition to tracking by Elta EL/M-2084 Active electronically scanned array multi-mode radar.

The multi-stage interceptor consists of a solid-fuel rocket motor booster, followed by an asymmetrical kill vehicle with advanced steering for super-maneuverability during the kill-stage. A three-pulse motor provides additional acceleration and maneuverability during the terminal phase.

Testing

On 25 November 2012, Israel successfully tested the Stunner interceptor missile. The David’s Sling battery, stationed at an undisclosed desert location in Southern Israel, fired and destroyed the incoming missile with a two-stage interceptor.

David’s Sling became operational in April 2017, at a ceremony held at Hatzor Airbase attended by Israeli and United States dignitaries, two batteries of the David’s Sling Weapon System were officially declared operational, activating the final component of the Israeli multi-tiered anti-missile defense array.

Recently, on December 15, 2020, the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO), of the Directorate for Defense R&D in the Ministry of Defense, together with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), have successfully completed a series of live-fire intercept tests of the David’s Sling weapon system, against threat-representative cruise and ballistic missiles.

This successful series is a critical milestone in the augmentation of Israel’s operational capabilities in defending itself against current and future threats.

On December 16, 2020, the Israel Defense Ministry announced that it had successfully tested the air defense system at sea for the first time on a large scale. Targets have all been successfully intercepted by Israel’s multi-level air defense systems, including Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling.

Specifications

(Source: Wikipedia)