The Iron Dome passed combat tests
Last year, Israel watched the first real hostilities of its Iron Dome anti-missile system. The Iron Dome demonstrated success by shooting down more than 85 percent of the missiles aimed at Israeli cities and towns.
A year ago, Israel deployed only its two anti-missile batteries, the Iron Dome, to protect against missiles fired from the Gaza Strip. One was deployed near the town of Beersheba (the largest city in the Negev desert and east of Gaza), and the other near the coastal city of Ashdod (the largest city within reach of 122-mm missiles fired from the Gaza Strip). 7 April 2011, the 122-mm rocket was intercepted near Ashkelon, south of Ashdod. The deployment of these batteries was caused by an increase in the number of missiles fired from the Gaza Strip and the increased use of 122-mm long-range missiles (20 kilometers). The missile defense system The Iron Dome proved that it is capable of operating in combat conditions, intercepting factory-made long-range missiles aimed at human settlements.
This year there were even more severe attacks. From 250 missiles fired from the Gaza Strip, 166 flew to Israel, and the Iron Dome computer system found that 56 missiles were sent to populated areas. They were released by interceptors that destroyed 75 percent of missiles. Thus, only 11 percent of the missiles that penetrated Israeli airspace actually hit populated areas, the rest missed or landed in the Gaza Strip itself. The ability of the Iron Dome to calculate ignoring any rockets aimed at deserted terrain allows the system to focus on a minority (less than a third) of rockets aimed at human settlements and those that can actually get close to their targets.
The deployment of the battery in the 2011 year was very important for the fate of the Iron Dome. Four months earlier, Israel declared that its new anti-missile system, the Iron Dome, was not designed to protect cities and villages, but only for military bases. This statement was a big shock for most Israelis. For years, politicians touted the Iron Dome as a means of protecting civilians living near the Gaza Strip in the south of the country, near Lebanon and in the north of Israel. But, as it turned out, the Iron Dome takes only about 15 seconds to detect, identify and fire targets with antimissiles. But in most cases, civilian objects currently undergoing rocket attacks from Gaza are close enough to the border (within 13 km), and therefore the missiles reach their targets in less than 15 seconds. This means that the city of Sderot, the closest Israeli city to the Gaza Strip, cannot be protected by the missile defense system. Over the past few years, Sderot has become a prime target for Palestinian rockets.
The problem of short distance and the short time of the approach of Palestinian rockets explains the reason why, after two years ago, the Iron Dome was declared ready for battle, to the surprise of many, it was placed in storage. The air force said they would prefer to save money and store the Iron Dome batteries for storage and deploy them only for routine testing and training, as well as in real emergency situations (the expected large-scale rocket attacks on southern and northern Israel). Politicians demanded that at least one battery be deployed along the border with Gaza. However, the military is more afraid of the growing arms of Hamas and Hezbollah with long-range missiles. This will allow them to bombard Israeli military bases with a large number of missiles. The generals believe that it is more important to protect the armed forces, which will ultimately protect Israel, and the Iron Dome should be used for this purpose. Since military bases are relatively far from the border, missiles with longer range and flight time (more than 15 seconds) will be used to fire them. The missile defense system The Iron Dome will be able to shoot down many of these missiles, as has already been demonstrated in trials. However, the use by terrorists of longer-range missiles for civilian targets changed these plans. Hamas seeks to kill civilians and directs its longer range missiles to Israeli cities.
Israel purchased seven Iron Dome batteries, which should be fully supplied next year. Three of them are currently in operation, and the rest will be ready by the end of this year. Each battery includes a radar, control equipment and four rocket launchers. Each battery costs about $ 37 millions, including more than fifty rockets.
The Iron Dome missile defense system uses two radars to quickly calculate the trajectory of intercepted missiles and takes no action if the missile’s calculated trajectory indicates that it is heading for deserted terrain. But if computers predict that the place of impact of the rocket will be a populated area, then a controlled interceptor missile worth $ 40 000 is triggered to intercept the attacking rocket. This makes the system profitable. This is because Hezbollah fired 4000 rockets in the 2006 year, and Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired more than six thousand locally produced Qassam rockets in the past eight years, and the Israelis know where each of them hit. More than 90 percent of these missiles hit deserted areas, and only a few of those that hit populated areas resulted in casualties. However, a thousand interceptor missiles will cost $ 40 million. But this will save a large number of military equipment and avoid the multitude of dead and wounded among the soldiers. Israel has already launched a radar warning of a missile threat. The Iron Dome uses this system in addition to other, more specialized radars in southern Israel.
The rocket attacks began in the 2001 year, but they have increased significantly since Israel withdrew from Gaza in August of the 2005 year. This peaceful gesture had the opposite effect. From 2001 to 2005, about 700 rockets were fired from Gaza in Israel. After the withdrawal of troops in the 2005 year, 4000 missiles were fired at Israel. The intensity of the attacks increased even more after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June on 2007.
Hamas armed with Iranian and Chinese factory-made BM-21 and BM-12 missiles. Israel believes that currently Hamas in the Gaza Strip has factory-made BM-21 rockets, each of which has a range of 20-40 kilometers. Hamas also has Russian-made B-12 missiles with a slightly smaller range (six kilometers). They are not smuggled in large quantities, as the Qassam II of local production has approximately the same firing range. However, the B-12 is more reliable (more predictable trajectory and fuse, so it will most likely land where it was directed and explode).
The 12-caliber B-107 rocket weighs 19 kg, its length is 84 cm and it is very popular among terrorists. This missile has a firing range of about six kilometers and an 1.35 kg of explosive in a warhead. Usually launched from the launcher salvo of dozens of missiles. When it is used one by one, then it is the more accurate, the closer it runs from the target. This 107-mm design has been copied by many countries and is very popular among partisans and terrorists due to its small size and portability. There is also a Chinese version of the BM-12 rocket, which has a smaller warhead and a large rocket engine. This version has a range of about 12-and kilometers.
The 21-caliber BM-122 rocket weighs 68.2 kg and is 2.9 m long. It has a 20.5 kilogram warhead, but not much better accuracy than the 107-mm model. However, these large missiles have a maximum range of 20 km. Again, since these missiles are uncontrollable, they are effective only when launched by volleys or for large targets (for example, in cities, large military bases and industrial complexes). There are Egyptian and Chinese models with smaller warheads and large rocket engines, which allows them to reach about 40 kilometers. This year, the Iron Dome intercepted eight of these large missiles aimed at Ashkelon and Ashdod. Then the Iron Dome battery was moved to other cities, where the Israeli Air Force is planning to eventually install the Iron Dome PRO batteries.
Rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip were surprisingly ineffective, killing only 40 people in eight years (half with rockets, the rest from mortars). Hamas was forced to launch around 270 rockets and mortar shells on every killed Israeli soldier or civilian. Israeli counterattacks resulted in the death or injury of one Palestinian for every three Palestinian rockets and mortar shells fired. One Israeli was killed or wounded for every 40 missile and mortar shells fired. Israeli fire was much more accurate, so most of the Palestinian victims were involved in terrorist activities, or persons involved in the creation or shelling of Israel with rockets and mortar shells. Hamas tried to maximize the number of civilian casualties by storing rockets in residential areas, as well as launching them from the same areas. Although Hamas believes in the concept of “involuntary martyrs”, sacrificing civilians, even if the victims themselves were not ready for this, many of the selected candidates do not want to die. Thus, the civilian population is trying to stay away from the areas from which they launch rockets and try to hide the fact that the rockets are hidden under their houses.
Meanwhile, in the north of Lebanon, Hezbollah possesses stockpiles from more than 40000 factory-made rockets, mostly BM-21, delivered from Iran via Syria. This is three times the number of rockets that they had in the summer of 2006, when more than 4000 rockets were fired at the northern part of Israel, killing about fifty people, most of whom were civilians. More than a thousand Lebanese died from Israeli counterattacks. Hezbollah and Hamas are planning to finally launch a joint missile strike on Israel. The Israelis are planning more effective countermeasures, which they do not discuss openly. There is also the possibility of deploying the Iron Dome in northern Israel, but the final decision has not yet been made.
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