David's Sling Unit proud to defend skies on Passover

The David's Sling missile defense system became fully operational last week in an official ceremony at the Hatzor Airbase in central Israel. Now, on Passover eve, the soldiers manning the system are preparing to celebrate the holiday, often referred to as the festival of freedom, at their posts across the country. This holiday they will officially begin defending Israel's sky.

"It was not intentional, but there is nothing more symbolic than a new defense system and a new unit beginning an important mission specifically on the festival of freedom," unit commander Lt. Col. Kobi Regev said.

David's Sling has been described by the defense establishment as a groundbreaking air defense system. Deployed across the country, it was developed to combat the threat of mid-range missiles. David's Sling, integrated into the Air Defense Command, completes an air defense triad along with the Iron Dome and the Arrow air defense systems. David's Sling is capable of countering a broader range of threats, such as rockets, mid-to-long range missiles and drones.

The system was developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and American defense giant Raytheon. In contrast to Iron Dome, the David's Sling operating system features a single, remote command and control center with sensors and launch pads deployed across the country. Military officials said the system's principal function is to protect against Hezbollah missiles and the largest projectiles in Hamas' stockpiles. They said the system would also be able to intercept cruise missiles, as it is designed to directly hit its target.

For a year and a half, the IDF trained soldiers in the mixed-gender unit to operate the system. "We absorbed the first nucleus [of soldiers] from other systems. They come from experienced, operational backgrounds. Over time we absorbed new recruits. Three classes of recruits and three classes of officers are currently in training," Regev said.

As every projectile fired by the new system costs a million dollars, system operators are trained on more cost-efficient simulators. For this purpose, the IDF has developed simulators that can recreate any possible scenario.

"The soldiers are ready. Even though we will always practice, learn more, improve and check ourselves, I can confidently say that the unit is ready for its mission," Regev said.

Maj. Roni Fishman, who commands the system's northern battery and is spending the holiday with his soldiers, agreed with Regev. He said that the soldiers assigned to the Air Defense Command feel pride in their unit in addition to their sense of duty.

"We built everything here from scratch, after a lot of training. It was no small feat, but we succeeded in molding the know-how. The soldiers are very excited -- we are going to spend the holiday of freedom with a sense of pride for being here to defend the country's skies and its citizens. We hope they won't need us, but if they do, the mission will be completed."

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