On Saturday, the IDF's Barak 1 missile system intercepted three drones that had been launched by Hezbollah "on an intelligence-gathering mission" of Israel's Karish gas field.
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This is a historic interception because for the first time it showed that the system, which had been installed on navy ships many years ago, was operational, effective, and accurate.
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israeli missile boats were targeted by 50 missiles daily, all of which were shot down by electronic warfare systems that had been installed on the vessels shortly before the war.
The Israeli Navy later concluded that in order to succeed in future battles, it needed to develop a missile system that would neutralize missiles as a generic system without the need for intelligence on the systems installed in the missile.
This is how the Barak missile project was born, which was developed in cooperation with two other navies. In the 1990s, the navy installed the system on its missile boats – as did the other countries involved in the development – but it never got to intercept a cruise missile or a drone, that is, until Saturday.
After the economic water declaration and the discovery of gas fields, Israel decided to task the navy with protecting its maritime zone and resources, which is how the integrated defense system came to be, which includes Sa'ar 6-class corvettes, advanced radar systems, Barak 8 system, and Protective Dome – the maritime version of Iron Dome.
Naval and air force teams have worked for years to create a single defense system that would protect Israel from such threats. We owe them our gratitude.
Hezbollah's threats to hit the gas rig, and by definition, Israel's energetic independence, put the navy on alert and led to these successes, but it is not enough.
Israel must respond to Hezbollah's attempt to spy on its gas field and target the terror group's drone system. This will deter Iran and the terror group from further attempts to fly drones over Israel's economic waters.
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