The Israel Air Force (IAF) is drafting a new doctrine aimed at enabling its pilots to better confront the growing threat of advanced surface-to-air missile systems in the region, local media said Monday.

The IAF's Operations Division is drawing a comprehensive plan, which includes the formulation of new flight guidelines and the development of active protection systems for aircraft, The Jerusalem Post reported.

As well, the white paper includes an in-depth analysis of the fronts that currently pose the greatest risk to aircraft -- Syria, Lebanon and Gaza -- and the SAM systems currently deployed in those areas, according to the report.

"The threat to our aerial superiority is growing and we need to adapt our operational plans to be able to work despite the existence of these systems," a senior IAF officer told the Jerusalem Post.

IAF commanders are particularly concerned about the SA-17 batteries that Syria received from Russia last year despite Israel 's attempts to pressure Moscow to cancel the deal. The system has a range of some 30 kilometers and is designed to intercept multiple targets at altitudes of 40,000 feet.

Lebanon's Hezbollah, for its part, holds a large stockpile of shoulder-fired missiles. The Shiite group is also suspected to have the SA-8, a highly-mobile Russian-made SAM system that can be mounted on trucks.

No Israeli aircraft have been downed by Syrian SAMs since the 1973 war. Ron Arad, an Israeli aviator, was captured by Hezbollah after his F-4 Phantom jet crashed over southern Lebanon in 1986 due to a technical malfunction, and has since been presumed dead.

Military planners are also rewriting the guidelines for flights over the Gaza Strip and along the porous border with Egypt, where militants have stockpiled shoulder-launched missiles, according to the report.

In a rare incident last August, an Apache attack helicopter which scrambled to the scene of a large-scale militant attack launched from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, narrowly missed a missile.

Most IAF aircraft are equipped with state-of-the-art electronic warfare systems and other defensive, albeit less sophisticated measures, such as decoy flares.

The plan currently being drawn calls for fitting aircraft, mainly helicopters that are especially vulnerable to ground fire, with so-called "hard kill" systems that fire an explosives-packed interceptor at hostile missiles, the report said.