Israel’s Ministry of Defense, Rafael, and IAI have completed testing the C-Dome air and missile defense system onboard Israel’s Navy Magen corvette, the lead ship of the Saar-6 Magen class.[playht_player width=”100%” height=”90px” voice=”en-US-JennyNeural”]
The test conducted in February 2022 included the interception of targets simulating rockets, cruise missiles, and drones launched from the shore, simulating realistic threats the vessels could face at sea and on missions protecting Israel’s offshore facilities in the Mediterranean Sea.
The tests included the first deployment of C-Dome’s integral missile Vertical Launch Unit (VLU) for the Tamir interceptor missiles. Unlike the land-based Iron Dome Container-Launcher Unit (CLU) that maintains a fixed slant position, the C-Dome is integral to the ship and stores up to 10 missiles below deck in a sealed vertical launcher. This launch method provides instantaneous 360 degrees coverage, increasing the agility of the missile.
According to Rafael, C-Dome is built with a modular system architecture to gain a small footprint and rapid integration in large or small ships, such as these corvettes and offshore patrol vessels (OPVs). Having a high rate of turn the Tamir interceptor is extremely agile, and can outmaneuver most aerial targets, which makes it suitable for point defense of offshore facilities and naval vessels.
The C-Dome 10-cell VLU will be placed side by side with IAI’s Barak-MX interceptors that will extend the ship’s defense over a longer range and larger areas. The vessel uses four faces of the IAI MF-STAR (Adir) active electronic scanning radar placed on the main and rear mast.
The C-Dome test was the first in a series of tests examining the ship’s operational capability. Additional systems will include the Barak MX and Leonardo 76mm rapid-fire gun turret that hasn’t been placed yet.
