Click to see full-size image. Via X.
Israel’s state-of-the-art Sky Dew high altitude missile defense aerostat was damaged on May 15 as a result of a drone attack by Hezbollah.
The group announced in a statement that it targeted a base near the settlement of Ilaniya, which houses the aerostat, with a number of suicide drones, describing the attack as “limited”. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) base is located near Golani Junction, some 35 kilometers away from the Lebanon border.
The attack was carried out in support of the Palestinian people and resistance in the Gaza Strip as well as in response to recent Israeli assassinations in southern Lebanon, the group said, likely referring to an early morning drone strike near the city of Tyre that killed one of its military commanders.
On May 16, the IDF acknowledged the attack. It said that Hezbollah launched two suicide drones at the sensitive base near Ilaniya.
One of the drones was shot down, but the other hit the base, according to the military, which said that damage was being assessed.
Photos posted to social media later showed the Sky Dew aerostat partly deflated on its launch pad, apparently as a result of damage caused by the attack.
Click to see full-size image. Via X.
Sky Dew, also known as the High Availability Aerostat System, was developed in a joint venture between the Israeli Missile Defense Organization and the United States Missile Defense Agency over the last few years. The system design is based on an aerostat air platform developed by the American company TCOM.
The aerostat is not yet operational and has seen significant setbacks with its deployment. However, the IDF deployed it earlier this year after components ordered from the U.S. arrived.
The drone attack on the aerostat marked Hezbollah’s deepest strike in Israel since the group began launching attacks from Lebanon in support of the Hamas Movement and other Palestinian armed factions after the outbreak of the war in Gaza last October.
In response to the attack, the IDF carried out strikes overnight in the northeastern Lebanese district of Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold some 100 kilometers from the Israeli border.
The strike targeted a Hezbollah weapons manufacturing plant, used to build guided munitions and drones, according to the military.
Lebanese media described the Israeli strike as the largest in the Baalbek region amid the war. No casualties were reported, however.
The clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border have so far resulted in ten civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of at least 14 IDF soldiers and reservists. On the Lebanese side, more than 400 people have been killed, including 281 fighters of Hezbollah and at least 70 civilians.
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