Defense News: IAI and Indian Navy Successfully Test Barak MRSAM Air Defense System at Sea

 

IAI and Indian Navy Successfully Test Barak MRSAM Air Defense System at Sea

Latest successful interception marks a major step in strengthening India’s naval defenses and highlights deepening strategic collaboration between Israel and India

By Mandi Kogosowski, Israel Defense,  28/04/2025

https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/64972

Photo: IAI

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the Indian Navy marked a major achievement last week, with the successful interception of a fast-moving, low-altitude target over the sea by the Barak Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) system. The test, part of a series of operational trials, further underscores the growing strength and readiness of India’s naval forces.

The recent success follows a string of successful tests across India's tri-services, including a notable trial conducted earlier this month by the Indian Army. It highlights the operational maturity of the Barak MRSAM system, developed jointly by IAI and India's Ministry of Defence, alongside leading defense companies in both nations.

Barak MRSAM is a state-of-the-art air defense solution featuring an integrated package of a cutting-edge multi-mission radar, command and control system, mobile launchers, and interceptors capable of engaging threats at ranges up to 70 kilometers. Installed on naval vessels, the system provides comprehensive, multi-layered defense against a wide spectrum of aerial threats, including ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Boaz Levy, President and CEO of IAI, hailed the success of the latest trials: "The successful trials highlight the uncompromising technological superiority of the air defense systems we have developed in partnership with our Indian counterparts. Barak MRSAM stands as a cornerstone of the strategic collaboration between Israel and India, once again demonstrating its proven ability to counter the most advanced aerial threats."

Oded Jacobowitz, VP & General Manager of IAI’s Air & Missile Defense Systems division, emphasized the strong partnership underpinning the program: "The series of successful operational trials conducted with India’s military branches reflects the depth of cooperation between IAI and our Indian partners, and the strong trust placed in our complex technological systems developed and manufactured by the Indian defense industry in collaboration with IAI."

With its advanced capabilities and proven operational performance, Barak MRSAM continues to play a key role in strengthening India’s defense posture, both at sea and on land.

Indian Navy’s guided missile destroyer INS Surat on April 24 successfully shot down a fast, low-flying missile in the Arabian sea during a test drill. Video released by the Indian Navy showed the advanced medium-range surface-to-air missile (MR-SAM) in action. The missile test came hours after Pakistan issued a maritime warning about a planned missile test in the Arabian Sea. Watch the full video for more information.

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Archaeology News: Oldest-known ant preserved in 113 million-year-old Brazilian fossil

 Oldest-known ant preserved in 113 million-year-old Brazilian fossil

The species, called Vulcanidris cratensis, is part of a lineage called hell ants - named for their demonic-looking jaws.

By Reuters. April 25, 2025

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/archaeology-around-the-world/article-851544

A 113-million-year-old fossilized ant preserved in limestone unearthed in northeastern Brazil, the world's oldest-known ant specimen is seen in this photograph released on April 24, 2025.(photo credit: Anderson Lepeco/Current Biology/Handout via REUTERS)

Scientists have identified the fossilized remains of the oldest-known ant - a winged insect with fearsome scythe-like jaws that lived about 113 million years ago during the age of dinosaurs and was preserved in limestone unearthed in northeastern Brazil.

The species, called Vulcanidris cratensis, is part of a lineage called hell ants - named for their demonic-looking jaws - that prospered in a wide geographical range during the Cretaceous Period but have no descendants alive today. A previously discovered Cretaceous hell ant was named Haidomyrmex in honor of Hades, the ancient Greek god of the underworld.

A medium-sized ant about a half-inch (1.35 cm) long, Vulcanidris possessed highly specialized jaws that would have enabled it to pin down or impale prey. Like some ants alive today, it had wings and appears to have been a capable flier. It also had a well-developed stinger like a wasp.

"It would probably be confused with a wasp by an untrained eye," said entomologist Anderson Lepeco of the Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Current Biology.

"They probably used their mandibles (mouthparts) to handle their prey in a specific way," Lepeco said.

                 The South American bullet ant. (credit: WIKIMEDIA)

Its mandibles moved up and down and not side to side, as they do in today's ants.

"Currently, many odd mandible shapes can be found in ants, but they usually articulate horizontally," Lepeco said.

This ant is roughly 13 million years older than the previous oldest-known ants, specimens found in France and Myanmar that were preserved in amber, which is fossilized tree sap.

The limestone preserved the insect's anatomy

The Vulcanidris anatomy is remarkably well preserved in the limestone, which was excavated decades ago in the Crato geological formation in the Brazilian state of Ceará, probably in the 1980s or 1990s, according to Lepeco. It was held in a private collection before being donated to the São Paulo museum about five years ago.

"I was looking for wasps among the fossils of the collection and was shocked when I recognized this one as a close relative of a hell ant previously described from Burmese amber," Lepeco said, referring to the fossil from Myanmar.

The specialized nature of the Vulcanidris anatomy and the fact that two hell ants lived so far from each other during this part of the Cretaceous suggest that ants as a group emerged many millions of years before this newly identified species existed.

"According to molecular estimates, ants originated between 168 million and 120 million years ago. This new finding supports an earlier age within these limits," Lepeco said.

Ants are believed to have evolved from a form of wasp. Their closest living relatives are wasps and bees.

Vulcanidris inhabited an ecosystem teeming with life. Fossils from the region show that Vulcanidris lived alongside other insects, spiders, millipedes, centipedes, various crustaceans, turtles, crocodilians, flying reptiles called pterosaurs, birds and dinosaurs including the feathered meat-eater Ubirajara. The ant's predators may have included frogs, birds, spiders and larger insects.

Ants have colonized almost everywhere on Earth, and research published in 2022 estimated that their total population is 20 quadrillion globally. That dwarfs the human population of about 8 billion.

"They are one of the most abundant groups in most environments on Earth," Lepeco said.

"They play many roles where they occur, such as predation and herbivory, controlling populations of other organisms. They also have intrinsic relationships with specific plants and insects, protecting them from other animals. Subterranean and litter ants help in soil health, and they may also act as decomposers, feeding on dead organisms," Lepeco said.

Oldest Ant fossil ever found, Prehistoric Predator Lived With Dinosaurs

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Space News: Revolution in space cuisine: Mini bioreactor tests lab-grown food production

 Revolution in space cuisine: Mini bioreactor tests lab-grown food production

If successful, astronauts may produce meals like steak and desserts directly in space labs.

By Jerusalem Post Staff, April 23, 2025

https://www.jpost.com/science/science-around-the-world/article-851174

Releasing JAXA's HTV7 cargo vehicle from the ISS. (photo credit: Astro_Alex is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched a mission to explore the feasibility of producing lab-grown food in space, aiming to reduce the costs of feeding astronauts. A small bioreactor containing genetically modified yeast cells was sent into orbit aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This experiment seeks to determine whether food can be successfully cultivated in the harsh conditions of space, characterized by low gravity and high radiation levels.

Dr. Aqeel Shamsul, CEO and founder of Frontier Space, is leading the project in collaboration with researchers at Imperial College London. "Lab-grown food will be essential to achieve the goal of making humanity a multi-planetary species," said Dr. Shamsul, according to BBC News. He emphasized that producing food in space would be more logical than sending it via rockets, which is prohibitively expensive.

Currently, the daily food cost for an astronaut can reach up to $25,000, posing a financial burden for space agencies. By cultivating food directly in space, these costs could be drastically reduced. The project envisions establishing a small pilot food production unit on the International Space Station (ISS) within two years as a first step toward sustainable space habitation.

The process involves cultivating core food elements—proteins, fats, and carbohydrates—in bioreactors, which are then processed into forms that have the appearance and taste of conventional foods. "We can make proteins, fats, carbohydrates, dietary fibers, and they can be combined to make different dishes," explained Dr. Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, director of the lab behind the project at Imperial College London.

One of the innovative aspects of the project is the use of precision fermentation, a process involving precise genetic modifications to

 produce essential nutrients. This technique is similar to fermentation used in brewing beer but tailored for nutrient production. A gene has been added to the yeast to ensure the production of additional vitamins, enhancing the nutritional value of the food produced.

Culinary designer Jakub Radzikowski is tasked with transforming these lab-grown ingredients into palatable dishes for astronauts. "We want to create food that is familiar to astronauts from different parts of the world," he told BBC News. "We will be able to create anything from French, Chinese, Indian food. It will be possible to reproduce any type of cuisine in space." Currently, Radzikowski is developing recipes using natural fungi-based ingredients until lab-grown versions are cleared for consumption.

Former British astronaut Helen Sharman, who has sampled some of the experimental dishes, praised the flavor and potential of lab-grown food. "You get a strong blast of taste—it's absolutely delicious," she told BBC News. Reflecting on her time in space, she noted, "Astronauts usually lose weight because they don't eat much. The food is very monotonous and quickly becomes boring. Therefore, something that was prepared from scratch can spark astronauts' lively interest—if they feel they are eating really nutritious food."

The successful cultivation of food in space could also address health issues faced by astronauts on long-duration missions. Astronauts' bodies undergo many changes, including disrupted hormone balance and decreased bone density. Lab-grown foods, enriched with special nutrients, have the potential to prevent these effects. Lab-grown food could be tailored to include the necessary nutrients for astronauts, potentially reducing the need for supplements.

Looking to the future, Dr. Shamsul envisions a time when astronauts can produce foods such as steak, puree, and desserts directly in a laboratory environment in space. "In the long term, we could put lab-grown materials in a 3D printer and print whatever we want on the Space Station, like a steak!" he told CNN Greece. "An astronaut who wants steak will print it from the printer. This is no longer science fiction; it's reality."

The initial test bioreactor orbited the Earth briefly before descending near Portugal. Upon its return, scientists will study the condition of the yeast, and the data obtained from the experiment will form the basis for creating a larger and more advanced bioreactor. The team hopes that this work is the first step towards establishing a small-scale food production facility on the ISS within two years.

Proponents of lab-grown food also highlight environmental benefits compared to traditional agricultural methods, such as less land use and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. As space agencies plan for long-duration missions and even habitation on the Moon and Mars, sustainable food production becomes a critical component of human space exploration.

"Growing food directly in space makes much more sense as space agencies plan to build permanently inhabited stations in orbit and establish a presence on the Moon and Mars," emphasized Dr. Shamsul. "We need to build manufacturing facilities off-world if we are to provide the infrastructure to enable humans to live and work in space."

The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.

Grow Your Own Food in Space? Scientists Test Bioreactors | DRM News | AI1Z

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Archaeology News: Tel Shikmona reveals evidence of ancient purple dye production

 Tel Shikmona reveals evidence of ancient purple dye production

The chemicals in the dye were made from snail mucus.

By Jerusalem Post Staff, April 22nd, 2025

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-851103

Hexaplex trunculus shell collected near Tel Shiqmona. 400 such shells were identified by two free-style divers within 90 mins at a depth of one to two meters on October 20, 2020 (photo credit: AYELET GILBOA/PLOS ONE)

An excavation team at the Tel Shikmona archaeological site on Israel’s northern coast has uncovered evidence of the ancient production of purple dye for industrial purposes, according to a recently published archaeological study.

A team of archaeologists, anthropologists, and historical specialists from across several US and Israeli institutions found an ancient settlement that was believed to be used for industrial-scale production of purple dyes, which were a prized asset in Mediterranean societies in the Iron Age.

The findings of the excavation were published in the academic journal PLOS ONE, attributing the findings to an ancient fishing village, Tel Shikmona.

Research found that the dye, known as Tyrian purple, caused the color of the uniquely colored textiles, common along the Mediterranean coast in the Iron Age. Due to finding materials in several locations, researchers concluded that there was a large manufacturing facility within the vicinity — but now, they’ve uncovered the location.

Large vats of stained purple, along with 176 additional artifacts contributing to the production process, for processing raw material into dye, were found at the site, located near Haifa.

                      Stone tools with purple residue. (credit: MARIA BUKIN/PLOS ONE)

Using snail mucus for dye

According to the initial report, the raw material in question was mucus extracted from sea snails that used it to defend themselves. The raw material is green but turns purple when exposed to oxygen, and multiple chemical steps would be needed to allow it to bond with a textile.

The processing of the material into dye would require multiple steps needed for chemical bonding to the textile. The size of the vats was big enough for 350 liters, suggesting that the site was meant for a larger scale.

Researchers found that evidence found at the dig site would be used in manufacturing throughout the Iron Age, and that the creation of the dye at this specific site began around 3,000 years ago. Production increased with the growth of the ancient Israeli kingdom, with a production drop and subsequent surge at the rise of the Assyrian rule.

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Space News: Scientists find strongest evidence yet of life on an alien planet

 

Scientists find strongest evidence yet of life on an alien planet

Madhusudhan noted that there are various efforts underway 

searching for signs of life in our solar system.

By Reuters, April 17th, 2025

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-850400

An artist's depiction of a planet and its host star with a misaligned disk of material, and a binary companion in the background, 

is shown in this undated handout image. (photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt, K. Miller (Caltech/IPAC)/Handout via REUTERS)

In a potential landmark discovery, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have obtained what they call the strongest signs yet of possible life beyond our solar system, detecting in an alien planet's atmosphere the chemical fingerprints of gases that on Earth are produced only by biological processes.

The two gases - dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, and dimethyl disulfide, or DMDS - involved in Webb's observations of the planet named K2-18 b are generated on Earth by living organisms, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton - algae.

This suggests the planet may be teeming with microbial life, the researchers said. They stressed, however, that they are not announcing the discovery of actual living organisms but rather a possible biosignature - an indicator of a biological process - and that the findings should be viewed cautiously, with more observations needed

Nonetheless, they voiced excitement. These are the first hints of an alien world that is possibly inhabited, said astrophysicist Nikku Madhusudhan of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, lead author of the study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"This is a transformational moment in the search for life beyond the solar system, where we have demonstrated that it is possible to detect biosignatures in potentially habitable planets with current facilities. We have entered the era of observational astrobiology," Madhusudhan said.

An artist's concept shows what exoplanet K2-18 b could look like based on science data. The illustration was released on September 11, 2023. (credit: NASA, CSA, ESA, J. Olmsted (STScI), Science: N. Madhusudhan (Cambridge University)/Handout via REUTERs)

Madhusudhan noted that there are various efforts underway searching for signs of life in our solar system, including various claims of environments that might be conducive to life in places like Mars, Venus and various icy moons.

K2-18 b is 8.6 times as massive as Earth and has a diameter about 2.6 times as large as our planet.

It orbits in the "habitable zone" - a distance where liquid water, a key ingredient for life, can exist on a planetary surface - around a red dwarf star smaller and less luminous than our sun, located about 124 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). One other planet also has been identified orbiting this star.

 A 'Hycean world'

About 5,800 planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, have been discovered since the 1990s. Scientists have hypothesized the existence of exoplanets called hycean worlds - covered by a liquid water ocean habitable by microorganisms and with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

Earlier observations by Webb, which was launched in 2021 and became operational in 2022, had identified methane and carbon dioxide in K2-18 b's atmosphere, the first time that carbon-based molecules were discovered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet in a star's habitable zone.

"The only scenario that currently explains all the data obtained so far from JWST (James Webb Space Telescope), including the past and present observations, is one where K2-18 b is a hycean world teeming with life," Madhusudhan said. "However, we need to be open and continue exploring other scenarios."

Madhusudhan said that with hycean worlds, if they exist, "we are talking about microbial life, possibly like what we see in the Earth's oceans." Their oceans are hypothesized to be warmer than Earth's. Asked about possible multicellular organisms or even intelligent life, Madhusudhan said, "We won't be able to answer this question at this stage. The baseline assumption is of simple microbial life."

DMS and DMDS, both from the same chemical family, have been predicted as important exoplanet biosignatures. Webb found that one or the other, or possibly both, were present in the planet's atmosphere at a 99.7% confidence level, meaning there is still a 0.3% chance of the observation being a statistical fluke.

The gases were detected at atmospheric concentrations of more than 10 parts per million by volume.

"For reference, this is thousands of times higher than their concentrations in the Earth's atmosphere, and cannot be explained without biological activity based on existing knowledge," Madhusudhan said.

Scientists not involved in the study counseled circumspection.

"The rich data from K2-18 b make it a tantalizing world," said Christopher Glein, principal scientist at the Space Science Division of the Southwest Research Institute in Texas. "These latest data are a valuable contribution to our understanding. Yet, we must be very careful to test the data as thoroughly as possible. I look forward to seeing additional, independent work on the data analysis starting as soon as next week."

 Transit method

K2-18 b is part of the "sub-Neptune" class of planets, with a diameter greater than Earth's but less than that of Neptune, our solar system's smallest gas planet.

To ascertain the chemical composition of an exoplanet's atmosphere, astronomers analyze the light from its host star as the planet passes in front of it from the perspective of Earth, called the transit method. As the planet transits, Webb can detect a decrease in stellar brightness, and a small fraction of starlight passes through the planetary atmosphere before being detected by the telescope. This lets scientists determine the constituent gases of the planet's atmosphere.

Webb's previous observations of this planet provided a tentative hint of DMS. Its new observations used a different instrument and a different wavelength range of light.

The "Holy Grail" of exoplanet science, Madhusudhan said, is to find evidence of life on an Earth-like planet beyond our solar system. Madhusudhan said that our species for thousands of years has wondered "are we alone" in the universe, and now might be within just a few years of detecting possible alien life on a hycean world.

But Madhusudhan still urged caution.

"First we need to repeat the observations two to three times to make sure the signal we are seeing is robust and to increase the detection significance" to the level at which the odds of a statistical fluke are below roughly one in a million, Madhusudhan said.

"Second, we need more theoretical and experimental studies to make sure whether or not there is another abiotic mechanism (one not involving biological processes) to make DMS or DMDS in a planetary atmosphere like that of K2-18 b. Even though previous studies have suggested them (as) robust biosignatures even for K2-18 b, we need to remain open and pursue other possibilities," Madhusudhan said.

So the findings represent "a big if" on whether the observations are due to life, and it is in "no one's interest to claim prematurely that we have detected life," Madhusudhan said.

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Space News: Webb telescope documents alien planet's death plunge into a star

Webb telescope documents alien planet's death plunge into a star

The James Webb Space Telescope reveals that planets may spiral into their stars, rather than being swallowed by expanding red giants. This changes our understanding of planetary destruction.

By Reuters, April 13, 2025

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-849959

                                          Artist's impression of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. (photo credit: ESA)

In May 2020, astronomers for the first time observed a planet getting swallowed by its host star. Based on the data at the time, they believed the planet met its doom as the star puffed up late in its lifespan, becoming what is called a red giant.

New observations by the James Webb Space Telescope - sort of a postmortem examination - indicate that the planet's demise happened differently than initially thought. Instead of the star coming to the planet, it appears the planet came to the star, with disastrous consequences - a death plunge after an erosion of this alien world's orbit over time, researchers said.

The end was quite dramatic, as evidenced by the aftermath documented by Webb. The orbiting telescope, which was launched in 2021 and became operational in 2022, observed hot gas likely forming a ring around the star following the event and an expanding cloud of cooler dust enveloping the scene.

"We do know that there is a good amount of material from the star that gets expelled as the planet goes through its death plunge. The after-the-fact evidence is this dusty leftover material that was ejected from the host star," said astronomer Ryan Lau of the US National Science Foundation's NOIRLab, lead author of the study published in the Astrophysical Journal.

The star is located in our Milky Way galaxy about 12,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Aquila. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). The star is slightly redder and less luminous than our sun and about 70% of its mass.

The luminous, hot star Wolf-Rayet 124 (WR 124) is prominent at the center of the James Webb Space Telescope’s composite image combining near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths of light from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument. (credit: NASA)

Our solar system

The planet is believed to have been from a class called "hot Jupiters" - gas giants at high temperatures owing to a tight orbit around their host star.

"We believe it probably had to be a giant planet, at least a few times the mass of Jupiter, to cause as dramatic of a disturbance to the star as what we are seeing," said study co-author Morgan MacLeod, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Jupiter is our solar system's largest planet.

The researchers believe that the planet's orbit had gradually deteriorated due to its gravitational interaction with the star, and hypothesized about what happened next.

"Then it starts grazing through the atmosphere of the star. At that point, the headwind of smashing through the stellar atmosphere takes over and the planet falls increasingly rapidly into the star," MacLeod said.

"The planet both falls inward and gets stripped of its gaseous outer layers as it plows deeper into the star. Along the way, that smashing heats up and expels stellar gas, which gives rise to the light we see and the gas, dust and molecules that now surround the star," MacLeod said.

But they cannot be certain of the actual fatal events.

"In this case, we saw how the plunge of the planet affected the star, but we don't truly know for certain what happened to the planet. In astronomy there are lots of things way too big and way too 'out there' to do experiments on. We can't go to the lab and smash a star and planet together - that would be diabolical. But we can try to reconstruct what happened in computer models," MacLeod said.

None of our solar system's planets are close enough to the sun for their orbits to decay, as happened here. That does not mean that the sun will not eventually swallow any of them.

About five billion years from now, the sun is expected to expand outward in its red giant phase and could well engulf the innermost planets Mercury and Venus, and maybe even Earth. During this phase, a star blows off its outer layers, leaving just a core behind - a stellar remnant called a white dwarf.

Webb's new observations are giving clues about the planetary endgame.

"Our observations hint that maybe planets are more likely to meet their final fates by slowly spiraling in towards their host star instead of the star turning into a red giant to swallow them up. Our solar system seems to be relatively stable though, so we only have to worry about the sun becoming a red giant and swallowing us up," Lau said.

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Defense News: Rafael Successfully Tests Typhoon 30 Remote Weapon System Against Aerial Threats

 

Rafael Successfully Tests Typhoon 30 Remote Weapon System Against Aerial Threats

The advanced field test showcased the system's ability to counter drones and highlighted its modular deployment 

By Eyal Boguslavsky, Israel Defense, 02/04/2025

https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/64795

Photo: Rafael video screenshot

Israeli defense company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems announced that it has successfully conducted another advanced field test of its Typhoon 30 Remote Weapon Station (RWS) in Israel. The test focused on the system’s ability to counter unmanned aerial threats and demonstrated its modular deployment capabilities.

In its announcement, the company stated that the test showcased the system's enhanced ability to neutralize drones at various ranges and demonstrated its modular adaptability on a 20-foot modular surface.

RAFAEL Successfully Demos TYPHOON 30's C-UAS Capabilities (photo credit: RAFAEL ADVANCED DEFENSE SYSTEMS)

RAFAEL describes the Typhoon 30 as a combat-proven system that continues to evolve in response to operational needs across multiple environments. It is designed to protect critical infrastructure and military positions against a growing range of low-cost and easily deployed aerial threats.

The increasing threat posed by commercial and military-grade drones has driven many defense manufacturers to accelerate the development of short-range air defense systems. In October 2024, we reported that the Israeli Ministry of Defense was expediting the development of advanced interception technologies against UAVs. As part of this effort, the ministry conducted a first-of-its-kind operational test at a testing field in southern Israel, featuring participation from eight Israeli defense companies—including Elbit, IAI, and RAFAEL—which presented a variety of interception solutions, including Rafael’s Typhoon 30 system.

RAFAEL's TYPHOON 30 Weapon System Demonstrates Precision Against Drone Threats

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