What is the Iron Dome that the Israeli occupation keeps talking about?

ArabiaWeather - Iron Dome is an air defense system with mobile bases, designed to intercept short-range missiles and artillery shells, as the Iron Dome system operates On tracking guided projectiles (short-range) by radar , the system analyzes and evaluates data about the potential fall area before providing coordinates for the missile launch unit to intercept the projectiles.

What is the story of the "Iron Dome" that the Israeli occupation brags about?

In February 2007, the Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz chose the Iron Dome system as a defensive solution to eliminate the threat of short-range missiles from the Israeli occupation zones, and in April of 2010 the Israeli government company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Limited unveiled the Iron Dome system. It was developed in cooperation with the Israeli Defense Forces, and at a cost of $ 210 million, as the system can intercept short-range Katyusha rockets, many of which were launched by the Lebanese resistance into the Israeli occupation areas during the July 2006 war.

The Lebanese resistance launched - in response to the Israeli aggression - more than 4000 short-range Katyusha rockets that fell in the northern areas of the occupation, killing 44 Israelis, and then the occupation decided to find a defense system to protect the occupation areas from short-range missiles, in addition to the continuation of some Palestinian factions Which is defending the lands of Palestine by firing more than 8000 rockets, the last of which were 122 mm rockets.

The Iron Dome system entered service in the summer of 2011, when it was deployed near the Gaza Strip , from which the Palestinian factions fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at the Israeli occupation areas, and later other batteries were deployed from it near the cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv and near the city of Netivot, located on 20 kilometers from the Gaza border.

The criticism of the Iron Dome system

The Iron Dome system is designed to repel short-range rockets and 155 mm artillery shells with a range of up to 70 km, and the system includes a radar, a tracking system and a battery consisting of 20 interceptor missiles under the name (TAMIR), but the system has been criticized for its effectiveness and cost. .

System Effectiveness

The Iron Dome system was criticized for being ineffective against rockets fired at very short distances. In an article in Haaretz in January 2010, Reuven Pedatzur, a military analyst and professor at Tel Aviv University, criticizing the Iron Dome system, said that the flight time of a Qassam missile to Sderot is 14 seconds, while the Iron Dome system identifies and intercepts the missile after 15 seconds. . This means that the system cannot intercept missiles with a range of less than 5 km.

However, General Dore Gold noted that Professor Pedatsur had based his calculations on the wrong approach, and that the missile did not behave like a straight trajectory bullet, but rather rose up and drew parabolic pieces before it fell on its target. To target a point located 4 km away, he would have to travel 11 km. Thus, it twice enters the radar detection field.

New criticisms have arisen regarding the supposed effectiveness of the anti-missile and artillery system. Criticism this time came from scientists working for Raytheon (the global leader in this field of industry) and Rafael (the manufacturer of the Iron Dome). Those who studied the videos were taken by people, and found that the true percentage of successful protests is about 5% compared to the 84% that the Israeli government is proud of. A successful interception must show two explosions , one for the Tamir missile and the other for the missile or shell that is being intercepted. However, the videos only show the explosion of the Tamir missile most of the time.

The high cost

The Iron Dome system has also been criticized for its high cost , as the cost of the interceptor missile is estimated between 35 thousand and 50 thousand dollars, and the cost can reach 62 thousand dollars, while the cost of the resistance missile is only 300-1000 dollars.

How did the Palestinian resistance penetrate the "Iron Dome" shield?

On Wednesday, the IDF faced questions about the effectiveness of Iron Dome, after several Israelis were killed in missile strikes. This came after Israeli officials stated that the interception rate of the Iron Dome system is 90%, and that the system spared the "Israeli entity" heavy losses of life.

However, Israeli analysts said on Wednesday that "intelligence sources had begun to warn some time ago" that the Palestinian resistance had greatly improved its weapons to the extent that they would "penetrate the Iron Dome shield ."

In an article by Yona Jeremy Pope, intelligence analyst for the Jerusalem Post, he said, "The Iron Dome has always had weaknesses," referring to the system's success rate. But he emphasized that this did not mean that the Iron Dome was no longer functional.

"Although the performance of the Israeli Iron Dome is remarkable, it should also be a stark reminder of the unequalness of this conflict," said Stephen Wagner, a lecturer in international security at Brunel University in London. He added, "The Palestinian factions' ammunition is simple and cheap and can penetrate from time to time a defense system on which hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent with US funding."