The United Arab Emirates, a member of the Abraham Accords “circle of peace” has deployed the Israeli Barak air defense system to protect the country from Iranian attacks, according to a source quoted by Breaking Defense.
A defense deal reached by Israel and the UAE reported last month by Reuters, however, referred to SPYDER mobile interceptors produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
Israel to Sell Advanced Air Defense System to UAE
SPYDER systems guard against aircraft, helicopters, bombers, UAVs, UCAVs, PGMs, cruise missiles and stand-off weapons, according to Rafael.
Several civilians were killed earlier this year when Abu Dhabi came under a drone and missile attack by Iran-backed Houthis on the emirate’s international airport and several other sites.
Emirati deployment of the Barak air defense system was reported after satellite imagery of two Barak launch modules and an Elta EL/M-2084 radar system was shared on social media.
The Barak-8 system was designed as a ship-borne system; it was co-produced by Israel Aerospace Industries together with India, and then modified and upgraded for land-based use in a few subsequent versions.
IAI to Sell Morocco Barak MX Missile System for $600 Million
IAI to Sell Morocco Barak MX Missile System for $600 Million
Another Abraham Accords member, Morocco, purchased the Barak-MX defense system from Israel earlier this year.
The $600 million air defense system isa new modular air defense solution developed by IAI to engage a wide array of threats using three new interceptors, a common battle management center (BMC) and a variety of fully digital integrated radar sensors.
The system enables operators to face any threat “in any mission and any battle condition,” IAI says, and can be integrated with any existing legacy or new sensors.
