Israel announces David's Sling upgrade

A photograph released on 1 July 2025 shows interceptors being launched by a David's Sling air-defence system. (Israeli Ministry of Defense)

The David's Sling air-defence system has completed a series of live-fire tests that “represent another significant breakthrough in upgrading the system”, the Israeli Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced on 4 August.

It said the tests included scenarios simulating future threats that it did not describe. A video that accompanied the announcement showed what looked like standard aerial target drones being launched during the tests.

The MoD quoted Brigadier General (res) Daniel Gold, head of its research and development directorate, as saying, “The system's latest upgrade represents another significant milestone, expanding our operational response range.”

“The testing integrated new capabilities across a wide range of challenging scenarios, with the system demonstrating outstanding performance against diverse advanced threats,” said Yoav Tourgeman, the CEO of prime contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

David's Sling is Israel's intermediate air-defence system, filling the gap between Iron Dome and Arrow, and was designed primarily to intercept heavy artillery rockets and shorter-range ballistic missiles.

It uses the Stunner ‘hit-to-kill' interceptor that unusually has both electro-optical and active radar seekers. US company Raytheon promotes an export version of the Stunner called the SkyCeptor as a more affordable alternative to the missiles used with its Patriot system.

David's Sling's operational debut took place on 23 July 2018, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) saying two Stunners were launched at what were assessed to be Syrian Tochka tactical ballistic missiles heading towards Israeli territory. The intercept was aborted when it became clear the missiles would land inside Syria but one of the Stunners failed to self-destruct and was reportedly recovered by the Syrian military.