All About Israel’s Iron Dome Missile Defence System

13 May 2021

Iron Dome intercepts rockets According to a report by AFP, Israel’s much-vaunted Iron Dome missile defence system is intercepting a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian militants from Gaza as bloody clashes escalate. According to the Jewish state’s army, hundreds of rockets which have been fired since Monday have been shot out of the sky by the system.

Up and Running

They claim that multiple rockets fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory exploded inside the Gaza Strip. The Israeli-designed Iron Dome system is meant to protect populated areas and critical assets by neutralising short-range aerial threats. The first battery was deployed in March 2011 near the southern city of Beersheva — 40 kilometres from the Gaza Strip, and a favourite Hamas target — to combat Soviet-designed Grad rockets fired from the Palestinian territory

How It Works

Israel now has 10 such batteries. The head of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, Moshe Patel, said that up to January Iron Dome had intercepted over 2,400 projectiles during the past decade. With each launch costing reportedly almost $50,000, he told the Times of Israel that it had “saved hundreds of lives”. Each battery has a radar detection and tracking system, a firing control system and three launchers for 20 interceptor missiles. Each has a range of between four and 70 kilometres.

How US Helped

Iron Dome was developed by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, a state-owned arms company based in the northern city of Haifa. But it is also partly funded by the United States, which committed $5 billion to its development costs in 2016. It is one of the strategic pillars of the US-Israeli alliance which has been followed by successive Democratic and Republican administrations.

Courtesy: ET Online