(Jerusalem) The Israeli army announced early Tuesday that it had for the first time deployed its new “C-Dome” defense system, the naval version of its “Iron Dome” anti-missile shield, to counter a “suspicious” device that had penetrated its airspace.
Monday evening, the military reported an alert in the area of Eilat, a city at the southern tip of Israeli territory which had been the target in February of intercepted ballistic missile fire from Yemeni Houthi rebels, allies of Palestinian Hamas.
“After sirens sounded in the Eilat area regarding the infiltration of a hostile aircraft, naval forces identified a suspicious aerial target crossing Israeli territory. The target was successfully intercepted by the C-Dome naval defense system,” the army said early Tuesday in a brief statement which reported “no injuries and no damage.”
Questioned by AFP, the Israeli army did not specify whether or not the suspect device was a drone, but confirmed “the first operational use of the C-Dome”.
This anti-missile defense system is the naval version of the “Iron Dome”, used for more than a decade by Israel in particular to intercept rocket fire from Hamas and Islamic Jihad from the Gaza Strip.
The C-Dome is an “Iron Dome” anti-missile shield installed on Saar-6 corvettes which had already been tested.
The Israeli army has invested in this new technology in recent years in particular to protect the country’s important gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Israel has launched the exploitation of the Tamar and Leviathan offshore fields in recent years in the hope of promoting its energy independence and exporting its gas to the Middle East and Europe.