Photo by: Courtesy
The tests were overseen by the Defense Ministry, the Israeli Air Force and the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. which developed the Iron Dome, slated to become operational and deployed along the Gaza border in the coming weeks.
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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.
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 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.
Photo by: AP [file]US approves $205m. for Iron Dome
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
05/21/2010 08:07 Talkbacks (21)
“With nearly every square inch of Israel at risk from rocket and missile attacks, we must ensure that our most important ally in the region has the tools to defend itself,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-California) said following the vote.
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US sources said Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s lobbying for the program during a visit in April had helped convince the administration to back it. The US has given tens of millions of aid for the longer-range Arrow and David’s Sling missile defense projects.
Photo by: Channel 10
Pedatzur’s harshest criticisms were reserved for the Arrow missile defense system, which, he said, does not present a defense against a possible nuclear strike from an Iranian ballistic missile. He said that since the system is not sure to work every time, and because a single atomic bomb can constitute an existential threat to Israel, the system is pointless.
He added that it didn’t matter if the system worked 99 percent of the time, and called its developers’ claims of such success rates “absurd and ridiculous.”
Pedatzur, who spent decades as an IAF fighter pilot, said “there are enough simple countermeasures that can be deployed to make the effectiveness of the Arrow basically zero.”
When asked why he thought such a conference would be held if the ineffectiveness of these programs is well known, Pedatzur replied that “for the aeronautics and defense industries, it’s a matter of money; and for politicians, supporting such projects allows them to tell the public that they’re doing something, they’re trying to find answers to the threats we face.”
Held under the slogan “The Best Defense Is an Active Defense,” last week’s two-day event outside Ben-Gurion Airport focused on international cooperation in facing the threat of ballistic missile attacks, and the belief that an advanced missile defense system that presents an “active defense” can serve as a powerful deterrent to enemy states with the means at their disposal.
Speakers, who included officials from Israeli arms manufacturers RAFAEL, Elisra, and the Israel Aerospace Industries, spoke about the importance of US-Israel cooperation on the issue of missile defense, as well as about the growing threat of Iranian and Syrian missile systems. They also talked about short- and long-range rockets in the hands of Hizbullah.
The long-time IAF fighter pilot reserved some of his criticism for anti-rocket systems like the Iron Dome and David’s Sling, saying they couldn’t handle the threat or hold up in a serious cost-benefit analysis.
“The Iron Dome is all a scam, he said. “The flight-time of a Kassam rocket to Sderot is 14 seconds, while the time the Iron Dome needs to identify a target and fire is something like 15 seconds. This means it can’t defend against anything fired from fewer than five kilometers; but it probably couldn’t defend against anything fired from 15 km., either.”
The David’s Sling is even worse, he said. “Each one of its missiles costs $1 million, and Hizbullah has well over 40,000 rockets. This issue has no logic to it whatsoever.”
Pedatzur is planning his own conference for the end of May, to be held at the Netanya Academic college, and he says he hopes it will bring a more serious analysis and debate to the issue.
“They aren’t discussing it seriously or taking it seriously,” he said.
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Israel inched a step closer on Wednesday to deploying a missile defense system along the border with the Gaza Strip after the Iron Dome successfully intercepted a number of missile barrages in tests held in southern Israel this week.
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.
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WASHINGTON – The US House of Representatives approved $205 million in new funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense project by a vote of 410-4 on Thursday. The project is being developed to protect civilians, primarily along the Gaza Strip and Lebanese border, from short-range rockets and mortar attacks.
Following US President Barack Obama’s announcement of the allocation last week, the House decided to hold an expedited vote on the funding rather than include it in the defense appropriations that has been the usual mechanism for aid to Israel’s missile defense program, since this way, if the Senate takes a similar approach, the money can be delivered more quickly, House staffers said.
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Tel Aviv University professor and noted military analyst Reuven Pedatzur on Saturday strongly criticized a ballistic missile defense conference and exhibition held in Tel Aviv last week, calling the organizers’ and speakers’ claims that current defense systems can protect Israel from missile and rocket threats false and disingenuous.
Added Pedatzur: “Considering the fact that each Iron Dome missile costs about $100,000 and each Kassam $5, all the Palestinians would need to do is build and launch a ton of rockets and hit our pocketbook.
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