Context: Israel-Palestine conflict involves Hamas, a Palestinian group that governs Gaza and is backed by Iran. Hamas has been in conflict with Israel, and the drone incident is seen as a show of support for Hamas by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. Israel has a very advanced indigenous defence industry. In this context, Israel for the first time deployed the ship-mounted defence system known as C-Dome near the southern city of Eilat.
C-Dome Missile Defence System:
- The C-Dome is a naval version of the Iron Dome, a land-based missile defence system developed by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries.
- It is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets, artillery, and mortars, as well as aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at a range of up to 65 kilometres.
Iron Dome
- The Iron Dome is a mobile all-weather air defence system developed by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries.
- It is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 to 70 kilometres away and whose trajectory would take them to an Israeli populated area.
Arrow-3
- Arrow-3 is an exoatmospheric hypersonic anti-ballistic missile, jointly funded and developed by Israel and the United States.
- It is part of the Arrow Weapon System, which also includes the Arrow-2 interceptor.
- The Arrow-3 is designed to intercept ballistic missiles, particularly those carrying nuclear, chemical, or biological warheads, outside the Earth's atmosphere.
