It is one of the best air defense systems in the world, a powerful shield that Israel has to protect itself from missile attacks: the so-called Iron Dome.
This Saturday Israel used it again to repel an unprecedented attack by Iran with “more than 200” drones and missiles, according to the Israeli Army.
The Dome, also known as Iron Dome, is a short-range air defense system deployed in various parts of the country to counter attacks with missiles, rockets, artillery projectiles, drones and other aerial threats, such as those this Saturday from Iran .
It has a range of approximately 70 km and It has three central components that form a unit: the detection and tracking radar, the battle and weapons management control, and the missile launcher armed with 20 Tamir missiles.
It was designed by the company Rafael Advanced Defense System LTD, a private firm with very close ties to the Israeli armed forces that builds air, sea and land defense systems.
It also had financing of more than $200 million dollars from the United States, a great ally of Israel.
Its manufacturer assures that it is the most deployed anti-missile system in the world and that it is effective in more than 90% of cases.
This Saturday its power was seen again when it intercepted the attack launched by Iran.
As air raid sirens sounded, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Israeli civilians they could hear explosions.
“The Air Defense Complex is fully operational and is intercepting threats where necessary, including at this very moment,” they stated.
“At this time, numerous aircraft are in the air, ready to counter any threat. It is possible that explosions may be heard due to interceptions or falling debris,” they added.
When a rocket is fired toward Israel, the detection and tracking radar detects the incoming trajectory and transmits the information to the weapons control system, which performs rapid and complex calculations to determine the rocket’s trajectory, speed, and expected target.
radar technology difference between missiles that can reach urban areas and those that miss their target. The system then decides which ones should be intercepted.
If the incoming rocket is headed towards a populated area or a strategic location, the launcher automatically fires the Tamir missile and the rocket is destroyed in the air, neutralizing the threat.
Tamir interceptors are launched vertically from mobile or static units. Then they detonate the missiles in the air.
A single battery consists of three or four launchers e Israel has at least 10. The system’s manufacturer claims that it has achieved more than 2,000 interceptions so far.
For what purpose was it installed?
The Iron Dome has its roots in the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamist group allied with Iran.
Hezbollah then launched thousands of rockets that killed dozens of Israelis and left extensive damage.
However, Israeli efforts to develop an anti-missile shield date back more than three decades and are framed in the military collaboration between Israel and the United States.
In 1986, Israel signed a contract with the US to research anti-ballistic systems as part of a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) project of the Ronald Reagan administration.
Five years after this agreement, Israeli leaders accelerated their efforts to develop this system when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ordered the launch of Scud missiles on Israel during the First Gulf War.
By early 2010, the Iron Dome had already successfully passed the tests carried out by the Israeli army.
In April 2011 it was tested in combat for the first time, when it shot down a missile launched against the city of Beersheba, in the south of the country.
“Almost infallible”
On October 7 of last year, the sophisticated system was apparently overwhelmed with the surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.
The devastating operation, which involved coordinated assaults by air, land and sea, took everyone by surprise.
In the first hours of the attack, Hamas launched thousands of missiles towards Israel from the Gaza Strip in what it called Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.
In response, the Israeli government launched a massive bombing offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Analysts agree that the Hamas attack was a huge intelligence failure by Israel.
But the question that many asked was whether the so-called Iron Dome was – at least at the beginning of the attack – overwhelmed by Hamas’ missiles.
Israel’s Defense Ministry said at the time that the Iron Dome is capable of handling multiple threats simultaneously, with a success rate of up to 90%.
At the beginning of the attack Hamas was able to fire thousands of missiles in rapid succession: according to the IDF, in the first hours of the attack Hamas launched 3,200 rockets, a number potentially greater than the system’s interceptors can handle.
The Dome does not fire if it determines that an incoming missile or rocket will land harmlessly, but it has a limited number of Tamir interceptors and reloading the system can take time.
It was not the first time that the Iron Dome would be overwhelmed by a Hamas attack.
In May 2023, the IDF stated that a “technical error” caused the system to malfunction during an outbreak of violence in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier that month, several rockets launched from Gaza hit populated areas of Sderot, in southern Israel, causing several injuries.
The Dome also performed poorly in 2021, when during a massive rocket launch from Gaza against the coastal city of Ashkelon “a technical problem prevented some rockets from being intercepted and this could have caused the death of two women and dozens of injuries.” , reported the Times of Israel.
Iran tries to overwhelm Israeli air defenses
Analysis by Joe Inwood, international affairs correspondent for BBC Newsnight
It appears that the idea behind Iran’s attack this Saturday is to overwhelm Israel’s advanced defenses with cheap drones, to give its more sophisticated ballistic missiles a better chance of hitting their targets.
It’s a similar tactic to what’s seen elsewhere, he says Justin Crumpfrom the defense analyst firm Sibylline.
“Iran’s tactics appear to have learned lessons from Ukraine, where the same drones have been used combined with ballistic and cruise missiles to overwhelm air defenses,” he says.
A few months ago, we were taken to an Israeli Iron Dome battery. It consisted of several interconnected launchers, each loaded with 16 missiles.
Each one is capable of shooting down a drone or missile that enters the air.
Iran appears to have calculated that overcoming this system requires quantity as well as quality.
However, according to Crump, it is a strategy whose success is far from assured.
“Israel is not Ukraine; American and probably British planes are apparently helping to destroy targets,” she says.
“And the Israeli Air Force is very capable. Furthermore, Israel has several anti-missile systems that will be difficult to overcome,” he adds.
The extent to which this unprecedented attack is able to penetrate Israel’s air defenses and the damage it may cause will likely influence the level of any Israeli response.
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