Elbit’s new Red Sky air defense system is made public to its first customer

Air war, global, land war

An Elbit graphic showing the concept of its Red Sky air defense system. (Elbit)

JERUSALEM – Elbit Systems’ cover on its new Red Sky air defense system broke last week, announcing that the short-range asset has landed its first international customer.

The company announced a $50 million contract for its Red Sky short-range air defense system on April 30, the company said on April 30. The company did not specify the customer or even the region in which it was acquired, as is often typical of the Israeli industry. , but did say that the contract covers a period of two years.

Yehuda “Udi” Vered, general manager of Elbit Systems Land, told Breaking Defense that this was the “first international customer for this system, with all three layers.” The name Red Sky previously referred to an older IMI air defense system, which Vered said was a “completely different” system. IMI was acquired by Elbit in 2018 and the current Red Sky was developed over the past three years.

Elbit describes Red Sky as “a very short-range tactical air defense system (VSHORAD) designed to provide protection against low-altitude aerial threats.” It includes the company’s Redrone electronic warfare solution, which is designed to counter unmanned systems and includes a “DAiR Radar, Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) sensors, RF Jammer and COAPS-L electro-optical (EO) payload” , the company said.

In addition to that soft-kill option, Red Sky is designed to provide hard-kill capabilities. Vered told Breaking Defense that the system includes radar, as well as links to a 30mm gun and missile system for taking down threats within a range of seven kilometers and 15,000 feet. The only part of the system not supplied by Elbit is the missiles, which will be integrated with whatever the client country wants to use. Vered emphasized the system’s ability to be flexible, which should allow it to cope with emerging threats in the future.

An image from Elbit showed the system being deployed on vehicles, with one vehicle mounted with a cannon and the other equipped with radar. The system itself is deployed with a rocket. The image shows Red Sky fighting helicopters, fighter planes, drones and loitering munitions.

“I would say the most important achievement, as I see it, is the complete system with kinetic interceptor munitions, missiles, radar and soft kill. And also Elbit’s command and control system,” said Vered. He described the system as mobile and easy to deploy, and emphasized its modular nature.

“You can decide that the threat is only drones and UAVs, or small and medium UAVs, maybe the weapon is (not) enough or the missiles, and maybe in the future the weapons are included,” the director said. “Everyone comes on a different vehicle, a relatively light vehicle. It is an elegant solution.”

The war in Ukraine has shown that this kind of system can be very efficient against Iranian UAVs, Vered noted.

Elbit is one of the three major Israeli defense companies, but has not built up the same name in the field of air defense as competitor Rafael. Red Sky fills a defense niche that is different from Rafael’s well-known Iron Dome system, but only time will tell if Red Sky can achieve the same level of commercial success.