David's Sling completes new test of capability

Israel announced on 9 July that it had successfully completed testing of the expanded capabilities of the David's Sling missile, aircraft and rocket defence system, an event coming shortly after the system had successfully operated in the field.

In a statement the Israeli MoD said: 'The David’s Sling... successfully completed a series of tests two months after its first successful operational interception during Operation Shield and Arrow' and described it as an 'important milestone'

'The existing capabilities of the system were tested in a number of challenging scenarios, which prove the capabilities of the system during conflict.'

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Israel Air Force Chief of Staff Brig Gen Eyal Grinboim said the test had demonstrated the success of the system in challenging conditions.

The medium-range system is reported to have successfully downed a rocket headed to Tel Aviv in May this year. David's Sling is designed to form part of the multi-layered protection system and fits in between the short-range Iron Dome and long-range Arrow systems.

Shephard Defence Insight reports David's Sling as having an effective range of 300km and an effective altitude of:246,000ft. 

The system consist of four launcher units, a Multi-Mission Radar (MMR) developed by Elta and the Battle Management Center (BMC), known as the Golden Almond, developed by Elisra.

The MMR detects the target after launch and transfers flight information to the BMC, which calculates the defence plan and passes information to the trailer-mounted Missile Firing Unit (MFU), each of which has 12 vertical launch canisters for the Stunner missile.