A look at Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense

[arp2041]

In four days of fighting against Gaza-based militants, Israel has used a missile-defense system called "Iron Dome" to intercept rockets fired at populated civilian areas. It says the new home-grown system has been a tremendous success. As of Saturday evening, the military said it had shot down some 240 incoming rockets, more than half the number of projectiles launched into Israel since Wednesday.

Here's a quick look at the system:

—Produced by Israeli-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Iron Dome is meant to shoot down rockets and artillery shells with ranges of up to 70 kilometers, or 45 miles. It has been operational since 2011. Officials say it has a roughly 80 percent success rate.

—How it works: The system detects launches of rockets and quickly determines their flight path. If it is headed toward populated areas or sensitive targets, it fires an interceptor with a special warhead that strikes the incoming rocket within seconds. Rockets headed toward open areas area allowed to land.

—Currently, five Iron Dome batteries are deployed in Israel. Most are located in the south near Gaza. A fifth battery was deployed outside Tel Aviv on Saturday, two months ahead of schedule. Hours later, it shot down a rocket headed toward Tel Aviv.

—Missiles cost around $40,000 a piece. In 2010, the U.S. provided $200 million to expand development. Additional funding is currently being considered, with $70 million already allocated for the 2012 fiscal year.

—The system is part of what Israel calls its "multilayer missile defense". It is meant to protect against the tens of thousands of short-range rockets possessed by militants in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Israel has also deployed its "Arrow" missile defense systems for long-range threats from Iran. The military says its new "David's Sling" system, being developed by Rafael to stop medium-range missiles, will be activated by 2014.

A look at Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense - San Antonio Express-News

 

[somebozo]

Impressive piece of engineering

 

[mastaan]

In four days of fighting against Gaza-based militants, Israel has used a missile-defense system called "Iron Dome" to intercept rockets fired at populated civilian areas. It says the new home-grown system has been a tremendous success. As of Saturday evening, the military said it had shot down some 240 incoming rockets, more than half the number of projectiles launched into Israel since Wednesday.

Here's a quick look at the system:

—Produced by Israeli-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Iron Dome is meant to shoot down rockets and artillery shells with ranges of up to 70 kilometers, or 45 miles. It has been operational since 2011. Officials say it has a roughly 80 percent success rate.

—How it works: The system detects launches of rockets and quickly determines their flight path. If it is headed toward populated areas or sensitive targets, it fires an interceptor with a special warhead that strikes the incoming rocket within seconds. Rockets headed toward open areas area allowed to land.

—Currently, five Iron Dome batteries are deployed in Israel. Most are located in the south near Gaza. A fifth battery was deployed outside Tel Aviv on Saturday, two months ahead of schedule. Hours later, it shot down a rocket headed toward Tel Aviv.

—Missiles cost around $40,000 a piece. In 2010, the U.S. provided $200 million to expand development. Additional funding is currently being considered, with $70 million already allocated for the 2012 fiscal year.

—The system is part of what Israel calls its "multilayer missile defense". It is meant to protect against the tens of thousands of short-range rockets possessed by militants in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Israel has also deployed its "Arrow" missile defense systems for long-range threats from Iran. The military says its new "David's Sling" system, being developed by Rafael to stop medium-range missiles, will be activated by 2014.

A look at Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense - San Antonio Express-News

here's a better link by a more authoritative source...
Israel

- Iron Dome's 5th battery will be operations in some time, it has been opened for testing today.
- It is capable of discering lethal rockets from duds (and as such should be news for people who believe that multiple missiles (a mix of real ones with decoys) can overwhelm such a system... and think of it this way... This is what US gave to Israel and is already being battle tested on real time... Which if further probed would give one an indication of how strong is US in its missile-defence capability and if anything, after this round of success, that capability becomes stronger and places US in a league of its own . superior and battle tested systems! Which other country in the world can boast of such credible maturity of defence systems?)
- a missile costs around $90k and now efforts are on to make it cheaper....

 

[madooxno9]

Read yesterday on BBC , that Iron Dome took out 99 missiles which were expected to hit populated areas. I was just impressed , this is hell of a system.

 

[sarthak]

Read yesterday on BBC , that Iron Dome took out 99 missiles which were accepted to hit populated areas. I was just impressed , this is hell of a system.

Though you can't put a cost on the human lives it saves , this is a really expensive system. Each interceptor missile costs around $ 35000 while each projectile the militants fire costs $500-600 at best. So what if they decide to buy 1000 of these projectiles , will Israel purchase interceptors worth $35,000,000? No doubt it's functionally effective , but it really needs to made more cost effective.

 

[Wright]

Pretty impressive. If there is a ground invasion we will see the trophy aps in action.

After the war is over, they will likely go back and make new systems while the arabs will go to their mosques.

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

Though you can't put a cost on the human lives it saves , this is a really expensive system. Each interceptor missile costs around $ 35000 while each projectile the militants fire costs $500-600 at best. So what if they decide to buy 1000 of these projectiles , will Israel purchase interceptors worth $35,000,000? No doubt it's functionally effective , but it really needs to made more cost effective.

Israel will counter the inexpensive rocket which is targeted towards valuable human lives and other expensive systems and installations and then use other weapons and army to fry those 1000 projectiles and enemys who is firing them.

 

[Developereo]

Kind of moronic to compare the latest hi-tech system against decades old, antiquated rockets which are little more than catapulted firecrackers.

 

[Wright]

Kind of moronic to compare the latest hi-tech system against decades old, antiquated rockets which are little more than catapulted firecrackers.

Well that is how it is. The US and others spent a lot on R&D to defeat IED's and outdated RPG's.

 

[Solomon2]

I actually met one of the Iron Dome engineers about five years ago. Dismissive of his own achievement, he was depressed about the amount of time Iron Dome had taken from his Torah studies. For Iron Dome he had to postpone - maybe permanently - becoming the rabbi he wanted to be.

 

[madooxno9]

Though you can't put a cost on the human lives it saves , this is a really expensive system. Each interceptor missile costs around $ 35000 while each projectile the militants fire costs $500-600 at best. So what if they decide to buy 1000 of these projectiles , will Israel purchase interceptors worth $35,000,000? No doubt it's functionally effective , but it really needs to made more cost effective.

so as you have researched enough on IRON DOME , i expect you to know that they are working with US to develop a system integration ( Iron dome + LASER ) .

Northrop Grumman proposed developing a more advanced prototype of Nautilus, Skyguard. Skyguard would use laser beams to intercept rockets, with each beam discharge costing an estimated $1,000–$2,000. With an investment of $180 million, Northrop Grumman claims it could possibly deploy the system within 18 months. Israeli defense officials have rejected the proposal, citing the extended timeline and additional costs. Officials also insist that with recent improvements to Iron Dome, the system is fully able to intercept Qassams.

 

[sarthak]

so as you have researched enough on IRON DOME , i expect you to know that they are working with US to develop a system integration ( Iron dome + LASER ) .

Frankly speaking , I'm highly sceptical that any laser based interceptors will be developed in the next 20 years at least. Even to cut a thin sheet of metal , you need a highly concentrated laser beam at extremely close range. Laser technology will have to improve several fold for this technology to be successful. I'm sure you would know that power of a wave is inversely proportional to R^2 , where R is the distance in metres. So , if a laser beam is fired from ground level , by the time it reaches a missile or rocket 10 km away , its power would have dropped by a factor of (10,000)*(10000) . WOW , now wtf is that ?, I'd pay to see a laser than can even scratch a piece of metal after it's lost its initial power by a factor of 100000000

 

[RaptorAlpha]

They showed the iron curtain on russia today , the launcher looked pretty much like a Katyusha (rocket launcher) , the rest i would say is only capable of shooting down primitive missiles and artillery shells ,and mortars, like you pointed out yourself , not a match against anything slightly more sophisticated

 

[Wright]

They showed the iron curtain on russia today , the launcher looked pretty much like a Katyusha (rocket launcher) , the rest i would say is only capable of shooting down primitive missiles and artillery shells ,and mortars, like you pointed out yourself , not a match against anything slightly more sophisticated

I somehow doubt Palestinians will have access to cruise missles and other smart expensive weapons to hit precise targets within Israel. And if they do, it will require significant military assets that can be taken out by the IAF.

 

[RaptorAlpha]

I somehow doubt Palestinians will have access to cruise missles and other smart expensive weapons to hit precise targets within Israel. And if they do, it will require significant military assets that can be taken out by the IAF.

Not cruise missiles , but expensive mid to short range missiles that can avoid a simplistic anti missile system like the iron curtain ; if the gazans don't own them the Hezbollah surely does.