- State affiliation · Israel
- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
State affiliation: Israel.
Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia.
In brief
The air force's ground-based air and missile defence formation — the organisation that operates the multi-layered shield of Iron Dome, David's Sling and Arrow, and that engaged the Iranian retaliation of both wars.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. No subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination confirmed
- Sources
- 3 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
- Broad area of activity
- Israeli airspace and its approaches
- Notable history
- Israel's ground-based air defence sits inside the air force as a formation of its own, which is the arrangement the Emirates also use and the Saudis do not. The array operates three tiers built with American co-funding — Iron Dome against rockets and drones, David's Sling against medium-range threats, Arrow against ballistic missiles in and beyond the atmosphere — under a command-and-control system that allocates interceptors by threat type and trajectory. It engaged the Iranian missile and drone retaliation of June 2025 and of the war that began in February 2026, alongside American Army and Navy defences in the region; a THAAD battery deployed to Israel in 2024. Interception rates are published by the parties as claims and this module does not adopt them.
- Strengths
- The most tested multi-layer missile defence in the world, integrated under one air-force command with the aircraft that share the airspace.
- Limitations
- Interceptor stocks are finite and expensive against an opponent whose method is volume, and the array's performance is known through the parties' own accounts. No sites, coverage, engagement records or stocks are recorded.
Documented equipment
Quick actions
System access
Where this record connects into the rest of Vigil. Each row is here because this organisation actually reaches it.
Sensitivity: Public · structural Confidence: Moderate Sources: IISS Military Balance↗ · Congressional Research Service — Iran, the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz · Reuters↗ Methodology Corrections
Assessed as of — 2026-09 Last reviewed — 2026-09-09
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