Syrian-Launched UAV Evades Israeli Air Defenses
Barbara Opall-Rome, Defense News 4:24 p.m. EDT July 17, 2016
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense-news/2016/07/17/syrian-launched-uav-evades-israeli-air-defenses/87225302/

TEL AVIV, Israel — An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Syria managed
Sunday to penetrate Israeli airspace and evade two Patriot anti-air
interceptors and possibly an F-16-launched air-to-air missile, sources here
said.

An Israeli military spokesman insisted Israel Air Force air defenders
detected the UAV prior to its violation of Israeli airspace on Sunday
afternoon in the area of the Golan Heights. According to a July 17
statement, the Air Force continued to track the target in Israeli skies, yet
failed to down the intruder, despite three intercept attempts.

“The aircraft was detected prior to entering the nation’s territory and was
fully tracked by the Israel Air Force,” noted a July 17 statement. “From the
initial investigation, it was found that three intercept attempts took place
as per procedure. No hit of the target was identified.”

An Israeli military spokesman said the specific type of UAV is still being
investigated, as are circumstances of the unsuccessful intercept attempts.

Tal Inbar of the Fisher Institute for Strategic Air and Space Studies said
Sunday’s event demonstrates the fact that Israel cannot hermetically seal
its skies from enemy intrusions. “Today’s event was a glimpse of things to
come in the event of a major conflict,” Inbar told Defense News.

“In future conflicts, it will be a huge challenge for even the most advanced
air defenses to discriminate from all the types of vehicles that will fill
the skies.

“When the skies will be full of incoming rockets, missiles and air breathing
threats — and when our own Iron Dome and David’s Sling interceptors will be
saturating the skies — it’s hard to imagine the Israel Air Force allocating
manned aircraft to shoot down incoming UAVs,” Inbar said.

Responsibility for defending Israel’s skies from aircraft and UAVs is shared
by F-16 air defense fighters and Wing 168, the ground-based node of the
service’s extensively integrated air defense network that operates upgraded
Patriot PAC-2 interceptors.

Prior to 2014, ground-based Patriots had historically been junior partner to
IAF fighters in their joint intercept mission against air-breathing threats.
But in the summer of 2014, Wing 168’s Patriot force blasted three unmanned
intruders out of the sky; two from Gaza and one near the Syrian border, not
far from Sunday’s incident.

Twitter: @opallrome