Amongst the anguish of short range ballistic missiles fired into Saudi Arabia from Yemenearlier this week, Riyadh and the people of Saudi Arabia maintained great confidence in the Patriot system it has deployed to successfully intercept those missiles that would harm human life while allowing other missiles not targeted correctly to fall harmlessly into the open desert.

In a serendipitous parallel track earlier this week, further to the west of the Saudi Arabia in this same Middle Eastern region, Israel conducted final testing of the David’s Sling system before its official deployment. David’s Sling is a system developed internally in Israel with the help of the United States that is similar in capability to the Patriot System designed to defend critical assets against short range ballistic missiles, maneuverable cruise missiles, and sophisticated longer range rockets in the terminal descent phase of the trajectory. This dolphin nosed interceptor can achieve a great amount of multiple machs in maneuvering to acquire and destroy its target and is capable of defending Jerusalem from sophisticated precision guided missiles and rockets launched from Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, and Sinai. This Israeli capability fills the void between Iron Dome, which defends against mortars and unsophisticated rockets at shorter ranges, and the Israeli Arrow 2 system which defends against ballistic missiles with more expensive interceptors at longer ranges in the atmosphere.

The United States Missile Defense Agency, funded by Congress in these efforts with Israel, has partnered with the Israel Missile Defense Organization in successfully developing and validating this new technology that is already in place. Israel will now further deploy these systems en masse to protect Jerusalem and other critical cities in Israel from a threat which continues to grow numerically and in sophistication from multiple groups and launching sites, a true Goliath of a problem to the national security of Israel.