By Adekunle Adekoya
In the last few weeks, the
global news media and the internet have been awash with the exploits
of the state of Israel in the campaign against Hamas, Hezbollah and other real
and apparent threats. In sympathy, Iran launched at least 180 missiles into
Israel last Tuesday. Israel claimed most of the missiles were rendered
ineffective by her advanced air defence systems called the Iron Dome, David’s
Sling, and Arrow.
For information, the Iron Dome is the most well-known of Israel’s missile shields, and is designed to intercept short-range rockets, as well as shells and mortars, at ranges of between 4km and 70km from the missile launcher. David’s Sling is meant to destroy longer-range rockets, cruise missiles and medium-range or long-range ballistic missiles from a distance of up to 300km. The Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems defend against medium-range and long-range ballistic missiles when they are anywhere up to 2,400km away.