The final test of the missile shield featured test rockets fired individually and in large bursts at Israeli ships and offshore oil infrastructure.
Today, the Naval "Iron Dome" Aerial Defense System was qualified for operational use. This innovation will help protect Israel's strategic assets at sea and naval troops operating in the area pic.twitter.com/6XwgsMGmir
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 27, 2017
Iron Dome was originally designed as a land-based system to protect Israeli population centers from short-range rockets and missiles. The sea version of Iron Dome incorporates a naval radar synchronized with detection systems in mainland Israel.
#Israel's Air Force & Navy completed a test today, in which the Iron Dome anti-rocket system was placed on a missile ship and defended a gas rig in the Mediterranean Sea.
— Shlomi Ben Meir (@shlomikliab) November 27, 2017
The test was successful. pic.twitter.com/w9TwaiVoSe
"The system has shot down more than 1,700 weapons since 2011," the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said Wednesday on Twitter.
Israel successfully tested a maritime version of IronDome aiming defend its gas facilities at the Mediterranean. The system mounted on a missile ship intercepted a barrage of rockets simulating Grads, which were fired&missed to the facilities in the last Gaza war in 2014 pic.twitter.com/yPH9ePtkvc
— Yossi Melman (@yossi_melman) November 27, 2017
"Now, the life-saving technology will protect Israel at sea," AIPAC said, emphasizing that the Israeli military had made a "major breakthrough."
"Today, the IAF put another operational layer to defend and protect Israel's energy assets in the Mediterranean Sea," Israel Air Force Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovitch said Monday.
