How Israel and Saudi Arabia Plan to Down Iranian Drones Together

How Israel and Saudi Arabia Plan to Down Iranian Drones Together The establishment of a joint aerial defense system for Israel and Gulf states against Iranian missiles and drones is on Biden's agenda visiting the region this week. This is how it will work https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-07-13/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/how-israel-saudi-arabia-and-th e-u-s-can-down-iranian-drones/00000181-f21b-d6c8-a5cd-fb7b3be30000

The regional defense alliance that Defense Minister Benny Gantz and other Israeli politicians have been talking up in recent weeks – which they have dubbed MEAD, or Middle East Air Defense – has actually been in existence for a while now. It had just gone under another label.

The United States Central Command, which has its forward base in Qatar, serves as a sort of defensive umbrella for the countries in its area of responsibility, in the Middle East and Central Asia, and since early 2021, Israel is part of CENTCOM’s region.

Over the past year, CENTCOM has been coordinating the response to air-defense threats for U.S. allies in the region. At this stage, the joint operation relies on the existing sensors and interception systems already in use by countries in the region, as well as those deployed by the United States. They include the X-band radar that the U.S. Army has deployed at Mount Keren in the Negev Desert and ship-borne Aegis combat systems in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Interception options include air-defense missiles and fighter jets.

Working through CENTCOM makes it possible to “fuse” the variety of electronic information gleaned by the various sensors, creating a real-time picture of the airborne threats in the region and intercepting them. The urgency in creating such a framework grew out of the successful Iranian drone and cruise missile attacks over the last couple of years on oil installations, cities and military bases in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They were launched from different directions, including Iran, Yemen and Iraq.

The efficacy of the new framework was already evident in February, when explosive-laden Iranian drones on their way to targets in Israel were intercepted by American fighter jets in Iraqi airspace. A few weeks later, a secret meeting of senior military officers took place in Egypt that included Israel Defense Force Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, the commander of the Saudi army and officers from Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE. A year earlier, in March 2021, Israeli F-35s shot down Iranian drones over other countries in the region, an operation “coordinated with neighboring countries,” according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

So far, the other countries that are part of the framework have preferred to keep mum and in the Israeli security establishment, there is concern that boasting by politicians would do damage to the cooperation, particularly with countries that work with CENTCOM but don’t have diplomatic relations with Israel – countries such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The Gulf countries already have air-defense radar and interception systems that they have purchased from the United States and elsewhere, including the THAAD anti-missile system and advanced versions of the Patriot air-defense missile. They are useful mainly against ballistic missiles but less efficient in dealing with the evolving threat from drones and cruise missiles.

The fact that the attacks are launched from different directions has also made it more difficult.

These countries are also interested in Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Barak interception systems. Barak was used two weeks ago against Hezbollah drones that were launched toward one of Israel’s natural gas platforms in the Mediterranean.

If the air-defense alliance proves itself and becomes more formal, there is talk in Israel of much more ambitious cooperation with Arab countries, especially in the Gulf. The multi-mission radar used by Iron Dome, David’s Sling and balloon-borne Sky Dew radar offer more flexible detection capabilities. More radars in the Gulf also mean that Israel will have earlier indication of potential attacks.

In the more distant future, there is talk of deploying the laser interceptors which are scheduled to become operational around Gaza on Israel’s southern border next year. The outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett even tweeted last month about a future satellite-based program to intercept ballistic missiles. "This new

generation of Israeli air defense systems will serve our allies, who are also exposed to severe threats from Iran," he said earlier this year at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference.