The Drive:

A photo has emerged of the Israeli Navy’s Sa’ar 5 class corvette Lahav armed with two Iron Dome air-defense system launchers, apparently for the first time. This comes as Israel continues to be on a heightened state of alert as tensions with Iran grow, and amid reports that Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen now possess Iranian-supplied “suicide drones” capable of reaching targets within the country.

The photo of the Lahav is not dated, and shows the pair of launchers fitted to the ship’s flight deck at the stern. We have previously seen this ship with a single Iron Dome launcher on this aft deck. You can see the photo further down in this article.

In its basic form, the Iron Dome system consists of launchers firing fast and agile Tamir interceptors, as well as associated air-defense radars. The system is primarily designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells, but can also be used against lower-flying aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles, as well.

Tamir has an active radar seeker to home in on its targets, and receives additional targeting information in flight via a data link to get near its target and make it even more effective. Crucial to its ability to defeat trickier targets is a highly advanced proximity-fuse system, able to detect a small and fast-flying target and detonate the missile’s high-explosive, blast-fragmentation warhead, with perfect timing, in order to destroy it…

Click here to read the full article.