Green Pine Radar - The Key To Israel’s Ballistic Missile Defense
It was a calm early morning in Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city, where the dry Negev desert meets the warm waters of the Red Sea. Far to the north, the "Iron Sword" war raged, yet here, peace remained undisturbed.
However, an unexpected drama unfolded on October 31st, 2023, high above the skies, far from Israel. A ballistic missile was launched by Houthi insurgents in Yemen toward Israel. The missile, capable of hitting targets thousands of kilometers away, was aimed at Eilat. In the past, interception of such targets was impossible, but Israel was ready to meet the threat. Its Green Pine radar, strategically positioned to cover the entire region, was on alert to protect the State of Israel far beyond its borders. The radar detected the threat and tracked the perilous projectile as it followed the course to its target. At the right moment, an Arrow 3 interceptor was launched and quickly ascended toward the approaching threat to score a precision engagement outside the earth’s atmosphere, destroying the incoming missile high above, and well away from Israel’s southern border.
Historic Milestone
This was a historic first intercept for Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI’s) integrated, strategic defense system, as the combined capabilities of the Green Pine radar and Arrow missile defense systems executed a triumphant interception. This momentous achievement marked the first successful combat engagement for such a system, ensuring the safety of Israel’s population and demonstrating the system’s readiness, maturity, defensive prowess, and strategic defense against the specter of missile threats. Nations are increasingly called upon to protect their populations, territory, and strategic assets from perils thousands of kilometers away as the threat of ballistic missiles looms larger than ever against the backdrop of global conflicts.. To defend against this threat, sovereign nations must possess early-detection capabilities as a prerequisite for ballistic missile defense readiness and response.
Green Pine Radar: Ensuring Security Against Ballistic Threats
IAI’s Elta Group has long been on the frontline of defending against long-range ballistic missiles. Triggered Iraqi missile attacks during the First Gulf War, IAI-Elta has been the cradle for developing world-class radar systems, boasting a broad portfolio of relevant technologies, including the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA), pioneering both the ‘eyes’ and ‘brain’ of the Arrow Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) program. At the time, this was the most ambitious project ever undertaken by the company, with its development team delivering an operational system in a mere 32 months. The Green Pine radar was first deployed in 1997 as part of the renowned Arrow system, which earned the 2003 Israel Defense Prize. In the years following the system has been modernized and upgraded to meet existing and future threats.
Since then, IAI-Elta has accumulated experience of over twenty-five years in this vital program, becoming the world’s most successful radar provider for ballistic missile defense systems. Designed to identify and track incoming missiles at long ranges and beyond the horizon, Green Pine meets the most challenging of requirements. These include the capability to direct precise countermeasures against swiftly-approaching targets while maintaining vigilance against multiple simultaneous threats. In recent years, the system has proven this capability repeatedly in operational terms.
The most recent testament to Green Pine’s standout capabilities is the early and accurate detection, tracking, and successful interception of the ballistic missiles launched from Yemen towards Eilat. Since its first launch, the system has recognized and intercepted additional missiles fired by the Houthi Shiite militias in Yemen. Green Pine’s exemplary performance in air surveillance and fire control modes, as an integral part of the Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile system, has thus been decisive in Israel’s capability to avert the devastating consequences of ballistic missile strikes.
IAI-Elta takes pride in the system’s evolution and its sustained ability to meet shifting threat landscapes. Tailored to withstand new challenges and demands with enhanced capabilities, Green Pine autonomously detects and tracks both tactical ballistic missiles over long distances, in all weather conditions, and in a saturated electromagnetic environment, ensuring that vigilance never falters.
The entire system, from individual microwave components to large electronic assemblies, was developed by IAI-Elta, which maintains full control over production and assembly at its facility in Ashdod, Israel, which many call the “Startup Nation”. The Green Pine radar software, including unique and advanced algorithms, is also entirely implemented in-house, granting Elta the capacity to uphold stringent quality control and to implement ongoing hardware and software enhancements efficiently throughout the system’s extended lifecycle. This also enables performance parameter optimization of Green Pine to align with the specific operational scenarios of the client.
Green Pine is the cornerstone of IAI-Elta’s leading status in developing ABM radars. Green Pine’s ability to classify and identify targets effectively and reliably without false alarms enhances early-warning and enables the rapid activation of air defense capabilities, creating more opportunities for target interception. This is an invaluable asset for those nations contending with the threat of ballistic missiles.
Combined with a variety of systems provided by IAI in the realms of aviation, space, and security in air, at sea, on land, and in cyberspace, Green Pine stands at the forefront of the effort to endow nations with high-level national security, vigilance against dangerous threats, and the ability for those states to live securely and prosper.