Kenya Defence Force is acquiring advanced air missile defence systems from Israel for Sh1 billion on loan, signalling deepening relations between the two countries.
The Spyder Air Defence System will be delivered by an Israeli state-owned company, Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd, which recently boasted that its equipment can counter ballistic missiles.
Kenya is acquiring the Spyder missile defence system from Israel using a Sh1 billion loan from Tel Aviv amid growing security threats in the Gulf of Aden from Houthi rebels and Somalia’s Al-Shabaab.
The Spyder Air Defence System will be acquired from Israeli company, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd, for undisclosed cost through the loan, the Treasury’s budget documents tabled in Parliament on Tuesday evening show.
“Procurement of quantity one (1) Reinforced Battery of Medium Range Surface to Air Missile System – Spyder Air Defence System,” read the Treasury budget documents submitted to parliament on Tuesday projecting fresh loans for the 2024/25 financial year starting July 1 this year.
Spyder is a quick reaction, low-level surface-to-air missile system designed to counter attacks by aircraft, helicopters, UAVs, and precision-guided munitions.
It provides protection at different ranges against a variety of threats: UAVs, aircraft, helicopters, and short-range ballistic missiles. The system intercepts threats by means of two families of missiles produced by Rafael: Python and Derby.
Spyder’s open architecture allows external components to be easily integrated and flexibly combined, affording different configurations with various ranges and capabilities based on customer needs and priorities.
Its autonomous capabilities can detect threats while on the move and enable a 360° launch within seconds of the target being declared hostile, in all-weather, multi-launch, and net-centric capabilities.
All the Spyder systems have multiple target engagement capabilities for handling saturation attacks.
Kenya’s acquisition of the Spyder may not be unrelated to its neighbor Ethiopia’s procurement of the same air defence system four years ago. Two Israeli firms, Israeli Aerospace Industries and Rafael, had installed Spyder-MR defense systems near the GERD in July 2019. The system is guided by an Elta radar making it effective against aircraft flying at low and medium altitudes, UAVs, cruise missiles, and precision-guided munitions within the system’s range.
Since then, Ethiopia has since acquired a plethora of strategic and tactical combat systems including rockets, MRLS, as well as combat aircraft from Russia, and long-range drones from Turkey.
Ethiopia has also successfully inducted Russian-made Pantsir S1 short range surface to air missile defense system.