After Israel and the US launched joint attacks on Iran on Saturday, Tehran responded with missile assaults throughout the Gulf, focusing on US army bases in these international locations. Inside hours, the UAE Ministry of Protection confirmed that its air protection methods had efficiently intercepted a number of incoming ballistic missiles.
Based on the ministry, the missiles had been destroyed earlier than impression. Nonetheless, particles from one interception fell in Abu Dhabi, killing one civilian. Abu Dhabi sits close to a number of strategic army installations, together with Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts Emirati and US forces.
For a lot of residents, the occasion unfolded as a collection of distant flashes and muffled explosions within the sky. Behind these transient moments, nevertheless, is a fancy community of radars, interceptors and command methods designed to detect, monitor, and destroy ballistic missiles touring at hypersonic speeds.
Understanding what occurred in these seconds means understanding how the UAE’s layered missile protection community works.
The System Designed to Cease Ballistic Missiles
The UAE’s missile defend consists of a number of layers of protection, such because the high-altitude Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and the lower-altitude MIM-104 Patriot.
Developed by Lockheed Martin, THAAD is designed to intercept ballistic missiles throughout the remaining section of their flight, once they descend towards their goal.
Not like conventional air protection missiles that explode close to a risk, THAAD interceptors destroy incoming missiles via direct kinetic impression, principally colliding with them at extraordinarily excessive speeds in what is called “hit-to-kill” interception.
The UAE turned the first country outside the US to deploy THAAD in January 2022, having obtained the system in 2015 as a part of a multibillion-dollar protection settlement.
A Layered Protection Community
THAAD is just one part of the UAE’s broader air- and missile-defense structure. The nation additionally operates the MIM-104 Patriot system, which is designed to intercept plane and ballistic missiles at decrease altitudes.
Collectively, these methods kind what protection planners describe as a layered missile-defense structure, giving operators multiple alternative to intercept an incoming risk earlier than it reaches the bottom.
In a typical interception sequence, a number of steps occur inside seconds:
- Detection: Early-warning sensors and radar methods detect a missile launch and start monitoring its pace and projected flight path.
- Monitoring and command: That information is relayed to command-and-control networks, which analyze whether the missile threatens populated areas or essential infrastructure and decide the place an interception ought to happen.
- Interception: Excessive-altitude interceptors akin to THAAD try to destroy the missile within the higher ambiance. If mandatory, lower-altitude methods like Patriot present one other interception alternative.
