Israel deploys its sea-based anti-missile defense for the first time

The Israeli military announced early Tuesday, April 9, that its new C-Dome defense system, the naval version of its Iron Dome anti-missile shield, was used for the first time to shoot down an aircraft. “suspicious”.

On Monday evening, the army declared an alert in the area of ​​Eilat, a city located at the southern tip of Israeli territory, on the edge of the Red Sea. “Naval forces have identified a suspicious aerial target crossing the Israeli border. The target was successfully intercepted by the C-Dome naval defense system”, the military said in a brief statement. In February, Eilat was the target of ballistic missiles fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who are supporters of Hamas, and were intercepted.

The C-Dome is an anti-missile shield installed on the Israeli Navy's Sar-6 Corvettes, based on the Iron Dome model, a system Israel has used for more than a decade to intercept projectiles aimed at its border, particularly by Hamas. and Islamic Jihad rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military has invested in recent years in these new defenses, particularly at sea, to protect the country's important gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean.