Israel completes tests on David’s Sling upgrade

JERUSALEM - Israel recently completed a series of live-fire tests on upgrades to the David’s Sling defense system, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced Monday.

The tests included simulating future threats, enhancing the system’s capabilities and improving its capacity to face the IDF’s various combat arenas.

Trials were carried out by the Israeli Missile Defense Organization in cooperation with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. The Israeli defense company Rafael Advanced Systems served as the primary contractor, with the subcontractor being Raytheon Missile Systems.

Israel mentioned in its announcement that “the tests represent another breakthrough in upgrading the system, which has already demonstrated high operational capabilities during the Iron Swords War and Operation Rising Lion, with successful operational interceptions.”

The tests were performed amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war and its June military operation in Iran. During that time the Israeli Defense Ministry confirmed the David’s Sling system intercepted ballistic missiles fired from Iran. Rafael also confirmed that David’s Sling deals with tactical ballistic missiles.

The David’s Sling defense system is designed to counter various air threats such as rockets, missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft and UAVs. It constitutes a central defensive layer within Israel’s comprehensive multi-layered air and missile defense architecture, which also includes the Arrow weapon system family, the Iron Dome Defense system and the near-future Iron Beam system.

“Our adversaries continue testing our air defense systems,” said Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Baram, director general of the Israeli defense ministry, in a release. “So, we must keep upgrading them while fast-tracking breakthrough technologies that will give us a decisive edge and boost our operational capabilities.”

Tzally Greenberg is the Israel correspondent for Defense News. He has experience reporting on economic affairs as well as defense and cyber companies.

耶路撒冷——以色列国防部周一宣布，以色列最近完成了一系列对“大卫投石器”防御系统升级的实弹测试。

测试内容包括模拟未来威胁、增强系统能力以及提高其应对以色列国防军各种作战环境的能力。

试验由以色列导弹防御组织与美国导弹防御局合作进行。以色列国防公司拉斐尔先进系统公司是主承包商，雷神导弹系统公司是分包商。

以色列在公告中提到，“这些测试代表着该系统升级方面的又一次突破，该系统已经在铁剑战争和雄狮崛起行动中展现了很高的作战能力，并成功执行了作战拦截任务。”

这些测试是在以加战争持续进行以及以色列6月对伊朗发动军事行动期间进行的。当时，以色列国防部证实“大卫投石器”系统拦截了从伊朗发射的弹道导弹。拉斐尔公司也证实，“大卫投石器”系统可以拦截战术弹道导弹。

“大卫投石器”防御系统旨在应对各种空中威胁，例如火箭弹、导弹、巡航导弹、飞机和无人机。它是以色列综合性多层防空反导体系的核心防御层，该体系还包括“箭”式武器系统系列、“铁穹”防御系统以及即将投入使用的“铁束”系统。

以色列国防部总干事阿米尔·巴拉姆少将（预备役）在一份声明中表示：“我们的对手不断测试我们的防空系统。因此，我们必须不断升级这些系统，同时加快突破性技术的研发，这将使我们获得决定性优势，并提升我们的作战能力。”

特扎利·格林伯格是《防务新闻》的以色列记者。他拥有丰富的经济事务以及国防和网络安全公司报道经验。