From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Israel to mothball Patriot air defenses after decades of mostly gathering dust
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israeli Air Force will bid farewell to its aging Patriot air defense systems in the coming months, replacing the batteries with more advanced air defenses, the military says.
In February, the IAF said it was in the process of closing several Patriot batteries, and its staff would be trained to operate on the Iron Dome instead.
According to an article published today on the Israeli military website, the Patriot array — known in the IAF as Yahalom, Hebrew for “diamond” — will be shuttered for good within two months.
“We are currently in the process of reducing the [number of] batteries until the entire system is closed,” says the head of the Aerial Defense Array’s 138th Battalion, which operates the Patriot.
US-operated Patriot missile batteries were deployed successfully against some Scud missiles fired from Iraq at Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.
The the US-made system officially entered Israeli service that same year, but only made its first interception in 2014, downing a drone launched from the Gaza Strip in 2014.
Over the following decade, the system, designed to shoot down aircraft, intercepted only some 10 targets, according to the military, including a Syrian fighter jet that breached Israeli airspace in 2018.
It will now be replaced with more advanced air defense systems, the IAF says.
The lowest layer of Israel’s multi-tiered missile defense system is the Iron Dome. The middle tier is the David’s Sling system, which is designed to shoot down medium-range projectiles. The longest-range systems are the Arrows, designed to intercept large ballistic missiles.
The move comes weeks after Israel’s air defense array was put to its largest-ever test with the launch of hundreds of projectiles from Iran, almost all of which were downed with the help of the US, Jordan, the UK and France.
It is unclear what will happen with the Patriot batteries, which are highly sought by Ukraine as it seeks to defend its skies against Russian missiles.
