Egypt Gets its Own ‘Iron Dome’ Air Defense System

Egypt’s purchase of 16 new air defense batteries, including 10 IRIS-T SLX air defense batteries with a range of 80 km and a height of 30 km, and six IRIS-T SLS batteries with a range of up to 12 km will give it an ability to guard against drones, rockets, aircraft and short range missiles.

Made by Diehl Defense of Germany, the IRIS-T sale was approved by the previous Angela Merkel government. The two air defense systems will provide it with capability similar to the ‘Iron Dome’ system in neighbouring Israel.

The IRIS-T SLM is equipped with a data link for on-flight target data updates and a GPS-aided inertial navigation system. A standard launcher vehicle of IRIS-T SL two pods of four missile launcher containers.

A battery of IRIS-T SLM includes a weapon master computer, an Active Electronically Scanned Array 3D radar which enables 360 degree coverage and is used for both airspace monitoring and target detection.

Egypt already has the S-300V4 from Russia to provide long range protection against incoming aircraft and missiles. In addition, BuK-M2 and Tor-M2 provide it with short range defense.