After Israel and the US launched joint assaults on Iran on Saturday, Tehran responded with missile assaults throughout the Gulf, focusing on US navy bases in these nations. Inside hours, the UAE Ministry of Protection confirmed that its air protection programs had efficiently intercepted a number of incoming ballistic missiles.
In keeping with the ministry, the missiles have been destroyed earlier than influence. Nonetheless, particles from one interception fell in Abu Dhabi, killing one civilian. Abu Dhabi sits close to a number of strategic navy installations, together with Al Dhafra Air Base, which hosts Emirati and US forces.
For a lot of residents, the occasion unfolded as a sequence of distant flashes and muffled explosions within the sky. Behind these transient moments, nonetheless, is a posh community of radars, interceptors and command programs 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 Excessive Altitude Space Protection (THAAD) and the lower-altitude MIM-104 Patriot.
Developed by Lockheed Martin, THAAD is designed to intercept ballistic missiles through the remaining part of their flight, after they descend towards their goal.
Not like conventional air protection missiles that explode close to a menace, THAAD interceptors destroy incoming missiles by means of direct kinetic influence, mainly colliding with them at extraordinarily excessive speeds in what is named “hit-to-kill” interception.
The UAE grew to become the primary nation outdoors the US to deploy THAAD in January 2022, having acquired the system in 2015 as a part of a multibillion-dollar protection settlement.
A Layered Protection Community
THAAD is just one element 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 programs type what protection planners describe as a layered missile-defense structure, giving operators multiple alternative to intercept an incoming menace earlier than it reaches the bottom.
In a typical interception sequence, a number of steps occur inside seconds:
- Detection: Early-warning sensors and radar programs detect a missile launch and start monitoring its pace and projected flight path.
- Monitoring and command: That knowledge is relayed to command-and-control networks, which analyze whether or not the missile threatens populated areas or important infrastructure and decide the place an interception ought to happen.
- Interception: Excessive-altitude interceptors comparable to THAAD try to destroy the missile within the higher environment. If essential, lower-altitude programs like Patriot present one other interception alternative.
