Iron Dome - Israel's gamechanger

Triton

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The Israeli Defense Ministry has reported that tests of the Iron Dome air defense system have been completed and that interceptor missiles will soon be deployed.

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http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Israel_delays_deployment_of_Iron_Dome_anti-rocket_system_999.html

Israel is to delay the deployment of its "Iron Dome" multi-million-dollar missile defence system until next year, a military source said on Monday.

The defence ministry had said in July that the Iron Dome interceptor, designed to combat rocket threats from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, would become operational in November.

But the source told AFP the military had now decided to put back its deployment until the first quarter of 2011, to allow more time to train those operating the highly complex system.

"This system is unbelievable," one officer told the Jerusalem Post. "It is, however, sometimes a complicated process to take in such a system and turn it into a fully functioning weapons system."

In the meantime, the system will be stored at an air force base in central Israel from where it can be deployed immediately in case of an emergency, the source told AFP.

The system, developed by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defence Systems with the help of US funding, is designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells fired from a range of between four and 70 kilometres (three and 45 miles).

Each battery comprises detection and tracking radar, state-of-the-art fire control software and three launchers, each with 20 interceptor missiles, the military source said.

Militants in Gaza and those allied with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia have fired thousands of projectiles at Israel in the past.

The system is likely to be deployed first along the border of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, from where militants fired a daily barrage of home-made rockets prompting Israel to launch a devastating 22-day offensive in December 2008.

It will then be deployed along the Lebanese border, from where Hezbollah militants fired some 4,000 rockets into northern Israel during a 2006 war. It was that experience which prompted the development of Iron Dome.

Israel believes Hezbollah now has an arsenal of some 40,000 rockets.

In May, US President Barack Obama asked Congress to give Israel 205 million dollars to develop the system, on top of the annual three billion dollars Israel receives from Washington.

Iron Dome will join the Arrow long-range ballistic missile defence system in an ambitious multi-layered programme to protect Israeli cities from rockets and missiles fired from Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, Syria and Iran.

A third system, known as David's Sling, it currently being developed with the aim of countering medium-range missiles.
 
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http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Israel_halts_missile_shield_deployment_999.html

Israel halts missile shield deployment


Israel's military says it will put its much-touted Iron Dome air-defense system in storage and deploy it only if Hezbollah or Hamas unleash major rocket bombardments.

On the face of it, that suggests that the weapon built by state-run Rafael Advanced Defense Systems may not be all that it's been made out to be, as some Israeli critics have claimed for some time.

The Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday that "after months of deliberation," the military has decided to store Iron Dome at an air force in central Israel, deploying it "only in cases of extreme rocket fire from the Gaza Strip or southern Lebanon."

Iron Dome had been expected to be certified as having acquired "initial operational capability" later in November. That certification, the sources were quoted as saying, was now likely to be announced in the first quarter of 2011.

The sources were quoted as saying that the deployment problem wasn't technical but because of delays in the "intricate process" of training crews to man the Iron Dome batteries.

Iron Dome was unveiled with much fanfare in July as "a milestone in military technology" after successfully completing a series of test-firings in the Negev Desert.

The system is designed to shoot down rockets and missiles with ranges of between 3 and 46 miles using radar-guided interceptors. Each battery has three launchers and 20 missiles controlled by a multi-mission radar built by Israel Aerospace Industries, flagship of Israel's high-tech defense industry.

It's the lower component of a planned three-tier missile defense shield.

David's Sling, built by Rafael and Raytheon of the United States, will cover medium-range missiles and slower-flying cruise missiles fired from up to 190 miles away. This system, still under development, is sometimes called Magic Wand.

The high-altitude Arrow 2, manufactured by IAI, forms the top layer defense against ballistic missiles like Scuds and Iran's Shehab-3bs. Two batteries have been deployed and third is slated to cover Tel Aviv, Israel's largest population center. An improved version, Arrow-3, is under development with Boeing.

The government has ordered two truck-towed Iron Dome batteries and the Americans have provided $250 million to acquire another nine.

But by all accounts Israel needs as many as 200 air-defense batteries to be properly protected and the military hasn't budgeted for that. That's primarily a financial issue, for which the Israelis are looking to the Americans to help them solve.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak observed in a recent interview that Israel needed "tens of thousands of the short-range interceptors, thousands of the David Sling interceptors and hundreds of the upper-layers (Arrow-2). That's a big package Â"¦ But in order to fully deploy we need some $7 billion-$8 billion."

However, Iron Dome's efficacy remains untested in combat, with the major concern it won't be able to cope with mass salvos of the short-range Katyusha and Grad rockets possessed by Hezbollah and Hamas.

Nathan Faber, an aeronautics lecturer at Israel's Technion and a former rocket scientist with the military, is one of Iron Dome's severest critics. For several years he has been sounding the alarm about what he sees as the system's weaknesses, "which they're attempting to conceal from the public."

The starkest of these, he maintains, is the system's difficulty into intercepting mortar shells and short-range rockets like Katyushas or Hamas' homemade Qassam rockets.

The military claims Iron Dome will be able to intercept 80 percent of incoming projectiles but critics say that's questionable since the system hasn't been tested against large salvos.

Military planners say that in Israel's next war it faces thousands of missiles and rockets raining on its cities over a sustained period. Hezbollah alone is reputed to have up to 45,000 rockets and missiles, four times the number it had when the 2006 war erupted. It unleashed 4,000 rockets against Israel during the 34-day war.

That triggered the rush to develop an antidote like Iron Dome, which critics say was designed to fight the 2006 war than the next one.

The liberal daily Haaretz observed in July that the Iron Dome tests "were received in certain defense establishment quarters with the distress usually reserved for failures.

"The seeds of failure lie in the success, because there are public expectations that the Israeli Defense Forces fears it cannot meet, either financially or operationally," Haaretz said.
 

Ray

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* Published 23:17 17.02.11
* Latest update 23:17 17.02.11

Iron Dome missile defense system to become operational within weeks


All test-runs of system prove successful, IAF believes that 13 Iron Dome systems will be required to protect Israeli civilians from short-range missiles.
By Anshel Pfeffer

The Iron Dome missile intercept system will be declared operational within a number of weeks, after the Israel Air Force – who will be responsible for operating the system – conducted successful test-runs for the first time on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The interception of target missiles in the test-runs proved successful, and this marked the final stage of tests of the new Israel Air Force unit.

The operation was conducted at a test site in southern Israel, practicing five different scenarios in which the system launched rockets at various ranges. The missiles launched by the Iron Dome successfully intercepted and destroyed the rockets in every scenario.

The operation was conducted by IAF officers and soldiers in cooperation with the Defense Ministry, who oversaw the development of the Iron Dome with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

The IAF was in possession of the first of two Iron Dome batteries for a number of months already. Owing to a series of technical problems, the announcement of the system as operational was postponed, but is now expected to take place within a number of weeks. Some parts of the second battery have already been sent to the IAF.

The IAF estimates that 13 Iron Dome systems will be required to effectively protect Israeli civilians from short-range missiles. It is not yet clear if and when the new battery will be deployed in southern Israel. The IAF currently plans on positioning the battery in the base and only deploying it upon demand. Despite that, members of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee demand the battery be positioned in the Israeli towns near the Gaza border.

In late 2010, Barack Obama's administration allocated $205 million dollars toward funding the Iron Dome.

Several months earlier, the Defense Ministry's top brass estimated the sum the Americans allotted would be sufficient for procuring eight or nine batteries, half of what is necessary to protect the Negev and the Galilee from short- and intermediate-range rockets and missiles

Iron Dome

Israel is shoring up her deence, more so in view of the democratic movements astir in many Middle East Countries and the threat of their being swamped by fundamentalists.


With the losing of Israeli military dominance in the Middle East ever since the Lebanon crisis, there is a serious lack of confidence deficit in Israel and hence it has become essential for Israel to continuously bolster her defences against future invasions by the Arab nations under the tutelage of anticipated fundamentalists in governance of the Arab nations.
 

Pintu

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Agreed Sir, also Iran's long range missiles poses threat for Israel.

Regards
 

Nonynon

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Israel deployes Iron Dome

The IDF on Sunday deployed the first battery of the Iron Dome missile defense system near Beersheba, southern Israel's largest city. It is estimated that the battery will be fully operational in the afternoon.

During the preparations for the deployment of the system, which uses cameras and radar to track incoming rockets and is supposed to shoot them down within seconds of their launch, Israel conducted a test during which rockets resembling Grads were intercepted.

The security establishment said it would take some time before the system becomes fully integrated in the army's routine activity.

"Israel has been under the threat of rockets for the past 20 years – since the Gulf War," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting. "I don't want to create the illusion that the Iron Dome system will provide a comprehensive solution."

Netanyahu noted that "The Iron Dome is still being tested, and in any case we cannot deploy batteries in such a way that they would protect every home, school, base and facility.

"The true answer to the threat is a combination of offensive and deterrence measures with defense measures," and stressed that Israel "holds Hamas responsible for everything fired from the Gaza Strip," the PM said.

Earlier Sunday, the Air Force attacked terrorists who were planning to fire rockets at Israel. At least two Islamic Jihad members were killed in the strike.

During a tour of Israeli communities located near Gaza on Friday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he approved the deployment of Iron Dome's first operational battery in the south and lauded its capabilities, while making note of its limitations.

"We must understand that alongside the fact that this is an exceptional achievement by our defense industries, unprecedented anywhere else, it ultimately does not provide 100% coverage," he said.

"This is the first battery, and every additional battery that we get will join this system," he said. "However, the full deployment would take several years and involve significant budgets."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4048253,00.html
 

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Iron Dome intercepts first rocket
Residents in Ashkelon reported Thursday seeing Israel's new Iron Dome defense system intercept a Grad rocket fired towards the southern city from the Gaza Strip. IDF officials called the interception a "historical moment", saying it was the first of its kind in the world.

Two intercepting missiles were fired at the rocket, but the first succeeded in hitting it, an army official said.

Eyewitnesses told Ynet they saw the rocket explode in midair and realized that the system had intercepted its first rocket.

Moshe Ben Hemo, a resident of Ashkelon, said, "I was in the street and I heard a strange sound, like someone pushing the gas pedal of a car. Then I saw the rocket fly through the air and explode. Immediately I realized that it was Iron Dome, that's what has been said here."

He added that the rocket alert had not been set off. "The rocket was apparently supposed to explode in Ashkelon. In any case I'm glad the system works," he said.


After hitting a student bus traveling through Shaar Hanegev Regional Council Thursday, critically wounding a 16-year old boy and lightly injuring the driver, terrorists in Gaza fired some 45 rockets and mortar shells at Israel. No further injuries were reported.

The IDF immediately began bombing targets in Gaza in response to the onslaught. Palestinian medics said a 50-year old man was killed in the airstrikes along with three others, and a number of other people injured, including a child.


Ashkelon's Iron Dome system was set up just Monday, with soldiers running extensive tests to make sure it was functioning properly. Another system was set up earlier in Beersheba.

The defense establishment decided to place the system earlier than planned due to the recent escalation of violence in the south. It has already been set up in Haifa, and in the coming weeks officials plan to put it in place in central Israel as well.


Hamas: Stop Israeli aggression


Despite Thursday's onslaught, Hamas called on the international community to "stop Israel's aggression in the Gaza Strip". Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said the organization would appeal to the UN Security Council because Israel was not honoring a lull agreement in Gaza.

The terror organization claims Israel is taking advantage of regret expressed by Judge Richard Goldstone over his report on Operation Cast Lead, which accuses Israel of war crimes, in order to attack the Palestinian people.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the Palestinian fire, which included dozens of rockets and mortar shells after the attack on the bus, derives from a desire to protect the people of Gaza and "pressure the occupation to stop its crimes".

He added that the IDF was also trying to ignite violence "in order to thwart inter-Palestinian truce efforts" between Hamas and rival Fatah. He stressed that the Palestinian "will not sit by as innocent blood is shed".
 

Nonynon

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An overall of 3 rockets were intercepted. This probably did a huge moral effect on the enemy because almost right after it happened they started to fire masses of Mortar fire that included an Anti Tank missle. Sadly, the Anti Tank missiles was fired at a bus and killed a 16 year old passenger. However IDF is now bombing the crap out of them, killed 9 and wounded dousens. Some of those were casualties to the Human shields strategy.
 
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AOE

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Well done to the Israeli forces. Looks like those terrorist scumbags are going to have to stop lobbing rockets into Israeli civilian areas and actually fight the IDF fairly for once. :D
 
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The Messiah

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Well done to the Israeli forces. Looks like those terrorist scumbags are going to have to stop lobbing rockets into Israeli civilian areas and actually fight the IDF fairly for once. :D
Only an idiot would do that against a superior force.
 

AOE

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Only an idiot would do that against a superior force.
Only a coward would target civilians and then claim 'Israeli aggression' when the IDF responds.

I was also being facetious, as I very much doubt that HAMAS would fight the IDF fairly.
 
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The Messiah

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Only a coward would target civilians and then claim 'Israeli aggression' when the IDF responds.

I was also being facetious, as I very much doubt that HAMAS would fight the IDF fairly.
Only a coward would use an aircraft to bomb a person holding an ak47. ;)

this term "fighting fairly" is wank because if both parties were "fair" they wouldn't be fighting in the first place.
 

amitkriit

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Only a coward would use an aircraft to bomb a person holding an ak47. ;)

this term "fighting fairly" is wank because if both parties were "fair" they wouldn't be fighting in the first place.
Every nation fights for it's survival, Israel is doing the same. Let us not try to beat them with the stick of "Morality", this is not their fault that they are militarily superior.
 

The Messiah

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Every nation fights for it's survival, Israel is doing the same. Let us not try to beat them with the stick of "Morality", this is not their fault that they are militarily superior.
I am not blaming them but pointing out that neither side can take a higher moral ground.

Everyone will use tactics that best suits them.
 

Nonynon

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Throwing fliers to warn civilians in places that are going to be bombed, bombing Hamas men at perfect timing when there are little or no human shields around and aiming only for Military targets while condemning and investigating murder and war crimes = Shooting, bombing and murdering civilians while encouraging hatred and Murder, using Human shields and wanting war in the first place?

If you think Israel should use tactics best suited for us we would just flatten Gaza into a parking lot the annex whatevers left. Then do the same with the West bank.
 

AOE

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Only a coward would use an aircraft to bomb a person holding an ak47. ;)

this term "fighting fairly" is wank because if both parties were "fair" they wouldn't be fighting in the first place.
If both sides of the equation were fair, then Hamas wouldn't exist, and the two state solution would have been realized on both sides already. Sadly, that's not the case. Instead the Israelis will have to deal with rockets being lobbed by cowardly Hamas into civilian areas, and the never-tiring 'you dirty war mongering zionists' propaganda when the IDF responds.
 

youngindian

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Israel's missile shield makes history.

BEERSHEBA, Israel, April 11 (UPI) -- The initial success of the Iron Dome anti-missile system built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in shooting down Hamas rockets fired at southern Israeli cities is a potential gamechanger against the Palestinians and probably against Hezbollah in Lebanon as well.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Se...kes-history/UPI-95981302544941/#ixzz1JHQazWsP
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Se...sile-shield-makes-history/UPI-95981302544941/
 

rizwan78

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Hahaaaaaaa, So it means an interceptor missile (Cost $-45000) has successfully shoot down a Home made Rocket (Cost $-20) is not it too worthy ?? why not stop demolishing their homes, Killing there infant children & use this money to win the hearts of Palestinians.........
 

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