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O Iron Dome of Israel has saved many lives by being able to detect a missile before it reaches its final objective. The anti-missile defense system has an effectiveness of over 80% and works in three stages. See how this has helped the State of Israel amid Hamas attacks right now. 6f5b5r
How the Iron Dome came to be 3wm1l
The first use of Israel's anti-missile defense system took place in 2011. It took four years to be fully developed and the impetus for this implementation was an attack in 2006 by the Islamic group Hezbollah against Israel. The first tests were carried out between 2008 and 2009, and the defense batteries arrived in 2011, undergoing several updates to be increasingly effective.
The US was the biggest financier of the Iron Dome by making an investment of US$200 million and, 8 years later, in 2019, the largest economy in the world purchased this same system so that it would work as a complement to the US anti-missile defense system, the Patriot.
Once it was ready to be used, the Iron Dome managed to shoot down a missile before it even reached its destination. The explosive was fired towards the city of beersheba, in the south of the Gaza Strip, which has been under Hamas control since 2007.
Both Patriot as much as Iron Dome have similar technologies: both can detect a missile as soon as it is fired, but the US model is more focused on intercepting aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, rather than short-range weapons.
How does Israel's defense system work? 5n4950
With a total of three modules, the Iron Dome it can be transported wherever needed and works in a very simple way:
- When the missile is fired, the radar detects the unmanned aircraft and the route;
- The information is sent to an autonomous control center so that the point of impact is detected;
- A missile to bring down the aircraft is then sent by the third module before the threat even reaches its destination, in a matter of seconds.
The Iron Dome system can also ignore threats and detect whether the missile will land in uninhabited areas, which prevents unnecessary use of weapons. It is important to that the detection system uses ten batteries that work in all weather conditions.
Depending on how many missiles are being fired at you, you may need to have overlapping coverage from your Iron Dome batteries. To give you an idea of the coverage needed, if you are defending against 1.000 missiles, you will need at least 1.000 missile interceptors.
Michael Shoebridge, director and founder of Strategic Analysis Australia, a think tank focused on defense and security.
Talking about the launchers, which vary between three or four, they hold up to 20 missiles, with ranges of 4 to 70 km, used to shoot down other aircraft. As soon as a threat is detected, two of these missiles are sent by the system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israel.
Each battery costs an average of 100 million dollars to produce (R$505 million), but the system is considered profitable as it only sends missiles if the threat targets a populated area. If it does not present a danger to the Israelis, then there is no need for intervention. Each battery is capable of defending up to 155 square kilometers and is strategically positioned around cities and populated areas.
Is Israel's missile defense system effective? 5x2o20
Security experts claim that the defense system of Israel It is highly effective and has saved the lives of thousands of civilians over the last decade. Israeli authorities have already stated that he managed to avoid 95,6% of a salvo of rockets fired by Islamic Jihad against Israel in May 2023. There is no fixed percentage of assertiveness of the defense system, but, in most cases, it has always managed to prevent missiles fired by Islamic groups from reaching their destination.
Another case that can be used as an example is one from 2012, when the Iron Dome batteries managed to shoot down 84% of the rockets fired by the Hamas group, directly from Gaza. The system detected 573 rockets and shot down 421 of them.
The defense expert Theodore Postol, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that, in 2013, during an action, Israel's anti-missile defense system managed to reach only 10% of what was detected and there is even a probability that none of the targets were actually hit.
In 2021, Israeli authorities stated that the Iron Dome had a 90% effectiveness rate during a 3.000 missile attack carried out by the Hamas group. But there is a mismatch of information in this case: the Islamic group claims that only 5.000 missiles were fired, which could lower the assertiveness of Israel's Iron Dome.
Why didn't the security system prevent Hamas attacks on Israel? 1b49
Israeli authorities explained that, in fact, everything happened in such an unexpected way that not even intelligence systems were sufficient to prevent the damage caused by the Islamic group. This is because Hamas armed men acted through different means: by land, air and even by sea. Israel's military was caught completely by surprise, despite terrorist attacks being nothing new to the state.
The entire system failed. It's not just a component. It is the entire defense architecture that evidently failed to provide the necessary protection to Israeli civilians. This is a Pearl Harbor-type moment for Israel: there is a chapter until the day of the attack and another chapter after the attack.
Jonathan Conricus, former international spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.
Data shows that, on October 07th, the Hamas group fired 2.200 missiles in around 20 minutes towards Israel and, despite the excellent defense system, there is no information on how many of these were intercepted and prevented deaths. Saturday's data shows that on October 07 alone, at least 700 people were killed and another 200 were injured. Three Israeli officials said the state would respond to the Hamas attack. The great conflict continues in its fourth day.
In military history there are always big surprises, Pearl Harbor, Barbarossa and (the) Yom Kippur war are just a few examples. Ultimately, intelligence can only go so far.
Naftali Bennett, former Prime Minister of Israel.
The Hamas group also acted intelligently: during the first moments of the attack, actions were taken to deplete the Iron Dome in all regions where it is installed (10, in total). Thus, as extremely effective as it was, Israel's anti-missile defense system is still not unlimited.
You've seen images of these [Israeli] interceptor missiles blowing up Hamas rockets in the air, but there are a limited number of these interceptor missiles. Therefore, one way to defeat him is to simply subdue him. And this is a weak point of any air defense system.
Malcolm Davis, senior defense strategy analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
What do you think of Iron Dome? Do you believe that, if necessary, it would be useful for Brazil? Tell us Comment!
See also other features
Understand the conflict between Israel and Palestine
With information: CNN (1 e 2)l with the BBC l ABC
reviewed by Glaucon Vital in 11 / 10 / 23.
