The Iron Dome air defense system, which came to the defense of Israel in 2011, is considered one of the most reliable in the world. During Sunday, August 7, 2022, the system once again confirmed its reputation by shooting down most of the 580 rockets that terrorists from the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine launched from the territory of the Gaza Strip. This is reported by Reuters.
The efficiency of Iron Dome in preventing this attack was 97%, which is the highest rate in the entire history of the system. For example, in 2011, the efficiency of the “Iron Dome” was at the level of 85%, and this was already considered very high indicator. In 2012, the system reached the level of 90% of downed missiles.
An air defense system like the Iron Dome would be useful for Ukraine to protect frontline, coastal and border cities such as Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, but, unfortunately, Israel does not plan to sell such complexes to Ukraine. Moreover, Israel even blocked the resale of Iron Dome batteries from the USA to Ukraine.
The Iron Dome battery consists of 3-4 launch platforms, each of which contains 20 Tamir missiles. That is, one battery can shoot down 60-80 shells of MRLS. The cost of one battery is about $50 million. One interception costs $100,000-150,000. Currently, 10 Iron Dome batteries are deployed in Israel, which protect almost the entire territory of the country. It is planned to increase the number of batteries to 15.
As a reminder, in April, Israel successfully tested the laser component of the Iron Dome system – Iron Beam. The use of energy weapons will reduce the cost of interception by two orders of magnitude, up to $2,000 for a downed missile, or even a mortar mine.
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