Finland to deploy Israeli David's Sling air defence systems near Russian border

Finland, a NATO member, wants to deploy Israeli David's Sling air defence system near the borders with Russia.

The system boasts impressive performance and an ability to resist interference due to dual channel homing heads of its Stunner missiles. These heads have active radar and infrared sensors that make it possible to resist interference and hit targets in a direct hit or with the help of directed fragmentation fields.

According to military analyst Yevgeny Damantsev, interceptor missiles fly at speeds of up to Mach 7.5 and intercept targets at an altitude of up to 50 km. The system will be effective against MLRS Tornado-S and Smerch.

A David's Sling system can track up to 200 targets. It can thus intercept 50 low-flying cruise missiles or five Smerch rockets.

The Israeli system is unable to intercept manoeuvring targets, its missiles do not have thrust vector deviations. This makes them ineffective against Russia's Iskander M quasi-ballistic missiles, Onyx and Kinzhal hypersonic missile.

The Russian General Staff has countermeasures for the deployment of David's Sling, Damantsev concluded.