The Iron Dome: what is it and how does it work?

The Telegraph ^ | 07/10/2014 | Inna Lazareva, Ashkelo

[Kid Shelleen]

In a sun-scorched field on the outskirts of the city of Ashkelon, out of sight of the locals who are busy picking ripe water melons nearby, two state of the art anti-missile defence batteries stand on high alert. Shaped like two giant match boxes tilted diagonally towards Gaza, the system comes to life as the wailing of a siren echoes through the nearby loudspeakers. In the time that it took to read the two sentences above, the iron dome system will have determined whether the rocket soaring through the sky is likely to land in an open field or crash into a building in a city. In case of the latter, a counter-missile will already have been deployed to intercept it. Such a process has been repeated several hundreds of times since Monday.

[LeoWindhorse]

to quote a friend who lives just outside of Tel Aviv :

” Indeed thank God for Iron Dome!! It allow us to maintain routine life. I do not wish to imagine how life had been without it. “

[Hostage]

Thank Ronald Reagan for that.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Those sneaky Jew bastards, using their creativity and intellect to gain a disproportionate advantage on their hapless Muslim adversaries! This must stop!

[Squawk 8888]

Ironically, Reagan probably thought it wouldn’t work; the point of SDI was not to intercept missiles but to goad the Soviets into spending more money that they didn’t have. The Israelis took the ball and ran with it.

[LeoWindhorse]

Star Wars baby !.....

[Chode]

100%

[Hostage]

I was involved at the time and it was very much known to work but not always.

The technology was in development before RR took office. The system was tested many many times with limited but improving success. Many tests were conducted in the Mojave Desert. RR wanted the system and was undoubtedly informed of its improving hit rate. But it wasn’t 100%. So he did wait on giving the order to deploy. But he wanted it bad because it represented a great political win. Rather than SALT talks of freezing nuclear weapons, he could talk of scrapping them.

RR’s hesitation was also brought about by the uncertainty of its cost and return on investment especially in the midst of criticisms of the cost of his military buildup.

And yes you are correct in the final decision he approved its deployment to goad the Soviets into further crippling themselves financially.

[beethovenfan]

It would be great if the clever Israelis could figure out how to take command of an incoming Hamas missile and turn it back to destroy the launchers.

[Squawk 8888]

Thanks, I knew a small part of the story but not all. My first clue that it was feasible was during Desert Storm when the Patriots took out some Scuds.

[NormsRevenge]

THAAD
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/THAAD

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)

Lockheed and many others and the army came up with this back then too.

Deployed to Guam and who knows where else these days.

[justa-hairyape]

It would be great if the clever Israelis could figure out how to take command of an incoming Hamas missile and turn it back to destroy the launchers.

They should be able to use radar and algorithms to determine exactly where it was launched from. Then send a new missile back into the place it came. They clearly have that capability, just do not want to use it. You do not want Hamas choosing all your targets.

[Hostage]

Yes I remember that too. I was with MMC before it became Lkhd-Martin. Then I was with HAC. Both experiences left me spell-bound as a young man at what our military tech could do. And there are still weapon systems not yet revealed and will not be revealed until they are used that are so frighteningly effective and devastating.

I would go so far as to say that superiority in US weapons tech and operations caused the cold war to splinter and expand the propaganda war and start new war fronts in the financial arena.

You do know that more than ten thousand Soviet era journalists and media people migrated to western Europe looking for a job after the collapse of the USSR?

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Ironically, Reagan probably thought it wouldn’t work; the point of SDI was not to intercept missiles but to goad the Soviets into spending more money that they didn’t have. The Israelis took the ball and ran with it.”

Spend more money. If we learned one thing from Reagan it was to defeat communism you have to bankrupt it. So how come we are not suing every leftwing group for billions?

[NormsRevenge]

The Lockheed and Then Martin been berry berry good to our family.. I can count a couple hands worth from the 50s forward..

Thank you American taxpayers!

[BwanaNdege]

They should be able to use radar and algorithms to determine exactly where it was launched from

Counter battery radar has been around for a long time. It does exactly what you suggested.

Counter-battery radar

[montag813]

The editors of the Telegraph likely wish it DIDN’T work.

[JoeFromSidney]

Back during the 1960s I was assigned to an Air Force research organization in New Mexico. One of the projects we were assigned to work on was analyzing the possible effectiveness of what was then called the "anti-ballistic-missile," or ABM. One day the head of the project remarked, what we really want is an iron dome over the city being attacked. I doubt there was any connection between his remark and the name of the Israeli weapon. Probably just a case of great minds running in the same channel. Since the real ABM work was being done by the Army, and we were Air Force, not much came of our studies. However, we concluded that ABM was feasible. It wasn't really "trying to hit a bullet with a bullet."