Iron Dome to be deployed
The Iron Dome anti-missile system passed a major test this week and moved a step closer to implementation along Israel's border with Gaza. The missile barrages that the system succeeded in intercepting included a number of rockets that mimicked Kassam and longer-range Grad-model Katyusha rockets that are known to be in Hamas’s arsenal.Sorry, folks. I've been covering Iron Dome for the last four years (when Israel could have bought an already operational American system) and I don't buy this. A rocket from Gaza takes 15 seconds to get to Sderot. Do you want to tell me that a human being will have time to see a rocket coming and get Iron Dome to respond within those 15 seconds? I don't buy it.
The Iron Dome is supposed to be capable of intercepting all of the short-range rockets in fired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizbullah in Southern Lebanon. The Iron Dome uses an advanced radar – made by Elta - that locates and tracks the rocket that is then intercepted by a kinetic missile interceptor.
During the test, the radar succeeded in detecting which rockets were headed towards coordinates that were designated as open fields and therefore did not launch an interceptor to destroy them.
The IDF has already established a new battalion that will be part of the IAF’s Air Defense Division and will operate the Iron Dome. Prototypes of the Iron Dome have already been supplied to the new battalion which has commenced training with the systems.
The IDF has also located positions along the Gaza border that will be used as bases for the system, which includes a launcher and radar system.
One option is to immediately deploy the system in the field and along one of Israel’s volatile borders, likely with the Gaza Strip from where rockets are occasionally fired into Israeli towns. The other option, under consideration, is to store the system in an IAF base and deploy it according to operational requirements.
I think we're being sold a bundle of goods because if we don't have answer to short-range missiles there is no way in the world that we can give up any more land. And I don't believe we should be giving up any more land.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:31 PM
6 Comments:
Human being won't be able to react in 15 seconds, but a computer system, if properly designed, may be able to do so.
Sigh. The Wall and now The Dome, and soon what else? A plethora of defense mechanisms made necessary only because our leadership cares so badly about world opinion and international "law."
"Komemiyut" (national sovereignty) - Rashi comments: "b'komah z'kufah" ("in an upright posture"). Exactly so. We sorely need that.
And so go our recent wars. We fall into the enemy's trap of guerrilla warfare. Colonial powers eventually sink into the quagmire of guerrilla warfare, because their colonial subjects are their workforce--they have no choice but keep it in place. But we are the indigenous people of the Land of Israel, not colonial invaders! It is for this reason that HaShem bring us enemies who say we are colonial invaders: To remind us we should stop acting as if we were such. But our leadership, again, is terrified of Hussein and The Hague.
I agree with Hutzpan. It would have to be automated computer response.
No human being is capable of responding that fast. We will have to see how effective Iron Dome is under real world conditions.
Whats this constant talk of giving up land?
We should be taking it BACK from the arab thieves!!
Zion, there is truth in what you say. A proud Israel would wipe out its enemies and not care for so-called "world opinion." In the end, the world is not going to love Israel for being nice to anti-Semites. A lesson which has yet to register with the fools who run Jerusalem.
During WW2, the Brits and Americans faced a similar threat: V1 cruise missiles and V2 ballistic missiles.
The V1, when detected, could be shot down by aircraft. But the Allies did not rely on defensive systems.
The real solution was to bomb launch sites and potential launch sites, send ground troops to overrun the launch sites, and destroy the factories making components for the missiles.
This worked. Eventually Israel is going to need to learn from history and do the job correctly.
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