On Friday night, Iran unleashed a barrage of ballistic missiles upon Israel, with unconfirmed reports suggesting impacts within Tel Aviv; while the IDF maintains that the majority were neutralised, some projectiles circumvented its layered defence, resulting in structural damage and necessitating the hospitalisation of fifteen civilians; this brazen act of aggression represents a salient stress test for Israel's aerial interception capabilities, already strained by a sustained influx of ordnance originating from multiple belligerents since the conflict's inception on October 7, 2023; the US has augmented Israel's defensive posture through the deployment of terrestrial-based counter-missile systems, yet Israel has, for the most part, independently prosecuted its own defence over the preceding year, leveraging a sophisticated architecture capable of discriminating threat trajectories and prioritising interception protocols for densely populated areas and strategically critical infrastructure; Israel's stratified air defence network comprises the Arrow system, engineered for exoatmospheric interception of long-range ballistic missiles, David's Sling, optimised for engagement of medium-range projectiles, and the Iron Dome, tasked with neutralising short-range artillery rockets; furthermore, Israel is pioneering the Iron Beam, an innovative directed-energy weapon system designed to employ laser technology for expeditious counter-projectile engagements.