Israeli missile defense chief: Multi-layered system approach has proven successful in Gaza conflict

Air war, global

This photo taken on April 14, 2024 shows explosion flares in the sky over Jerusalem as Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts missiles and drones from Iran. (Photo by Jamal Awad/Xinhua via Getty Images)

JERUSALEM — Years of training, tests and joint exercises with the United States have helped Israel prepare its defenses for the threats it has faced over the past nine months, including not only relatively short attacks by Hamas in Gaza but also long-range drone and missile strikes from the Houthis in Yemen and Iran, a senior Israeli defense official said.

“Whatever we have simulated and tested for so many years has worked,” Moshe Patel, the director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO), told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Friday, referring specifically to Israel’s defense against a massive Iranian attack in April. Overall, he said, “I think the lessons from what happened during the war and the preparations for how we can be much better will continue to be shared, and we are very happy to have a family like (the U.S.).”

Patel highlighted Israel’s successes on several key dates in the recent conflict, starting with its outbreak on October 7 during the first devastating terrorist attack by Hamas. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) may have been overrun on the ground, but Patel said its air defenses did a good job of repelling thousands of rocket attacks from Gaza that day.

“We had a massive attack on Israel and our whole architecture worked very well,” he said. Although Israel lost hundreds of soldiers and more than 1,000 civilians were killed on the ground in the attack, Patel said the air defenses saved thousands more lives.

Israel’s air defenses were tested again the next day when Hezbollah entered the conflict, firing munitions from northern Lebanon — 5,000 by mid-June. The three-layered air defenses were successful in stopping most of Hezbollah’s rockets, missiles and drones, but Patel said some could get through and pose a threat to Israelis on the Lebanon border, along with anti-tank missiles.

Perhaps the most significant test of Israeli systems came on April 13, when Iran fired an unprecedented number of about 300 rockets and drones at Israel, while others were believed to have been fired by Hezbollah and other Iran-backed proxy groups – a total of 550 projectile threats, according to Patel. Although Tehran warned neighboring countries, Patel said, “From Iran’s perspective, it was superbly planned.” He noted that the attack was coordinated so that Iranian drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles arrived over Israel simultaneously to try to overwhelm Israeli systems.

Many of the slow drones were shot down by warplanes before they could reach their targets, and Israel was able to rely on the US, UK and even Jordan to shoot down others. Nevertheless, Israel was able to intercept many of the ballistic missiles. In the end, a seven-year-old girl was seriously injured by debris from an intercepted missile, and an Israeli military airfield suffered relatively little damage. No one was killed.

The successful defense against this attack was due in part to intensive training with the United States, Patel said, including the joint air defense exercise Juniper Cobra, which took place just two weeks before the October 7 attacks.

“We have prepared our operators and are having excellent discussions with our U.S. partners,” he said. Patel pointed to previous tests of Arrow 3, the top layer of Israel’s air defense system, in Alaska that paved the way for the actual intercept tests in April, and before that, the first operational exoatmospheric interception of a Houthi missile by Arrow 3 on Nov. 9.

Patel described the close working relationship with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, saying he had been talking to the agency from day one of the war to share information and discuss what could be done better. Patel also noted that Israel’s move to the U.S. Central Command’s area of ​​responsibility rather than the European Command, as was the case for decades, has led to improved interoperability and more joint exercises.

But Israel is not resting on its laurels of previous defense, he said. He spoke about speeding up the production process for air defense, mentioning that Israel recently sold the lower tier of the air defense system, David’s Sling, to Finland and Arrow to Germany. Despite the recent war, Israel will fulfill these contracts as expected, he said.