Posted on 07/30/2024 12:05:01 AM PDT by Eleutheria5
N AN UNPRECEDENTED NIGHTTIME ATTACK on April 13, 2024, Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel. Simultaneously, Hezbollah fired dozens of Grad rockets at Israel Defense Forces positions in the Golan Heights. What followed was a barrage of missiles that met a wall of resistance.
Israel’s Arrow 3 interceptors hit ballistic missiles while they were still in space. At lower altitudes, David’s Sling missiles, which resemble the U.S. Patriot, took out even more. Meanwhile, U.S. warships and aircraft shot down some attackers. The last line of defense was Israel’s famed Iron Dome, a network of short-range interceptor missiles guided by radar.
Israel had defeated virtually the entire attack, swatting cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, rockets, and drones from the sky. And that was by design.
“Israel is a narrow strip of land with dense urban population centers. That does not leave much depth, so there is a premium on intercepting threats in flight,” explains James Black, assistant director at RAND Europe, a nonprofit think tank.
But Israel’s sophisticated, multi-layered integrated air-defense systems couldn’t stop everything. Nine Iranian missiles reportedly struck Nevatim and Ramon Airbases, and one person was injured by shrapnel. The waves of drones, missiles, and rockets synchronized to hit simultaneously were meant to overload Israeli defenses and exhaust stocks of interceptors. The wall held well this time, but Israeli planners know it’s a numbers game.
“Looking at both Israel and Ukraine, we are seeing defenders burning through missiles faster than industry can replace them,” Black says. So, Israel wants an air-defense system that never runs out of ammunition: Iron Beam.
A $1.2 billion U.S. aid package will help fund deployment of Iron Beam, Israel’s one-of-a-kind, high-power laser system designed to knock down missiles, rockets, and drones....
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(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
The current generation laser system has a very low rate of fire and a limited number of shots before it requires maintenance. You need a large number of active systems to defeat a swarm attack.
The systems must be widely disbursed so if an attacker does get through it cannot disable multiple defensive stations. They systems need to be mobile as well. The "Iron Beam" appears to have these features.
There will be rapid improvements in these systems. We will end up buying them from the Israelis.
The Israelis are pretty good at innovation and rapid deployment of new battle technology. The US often draws useful lessons from Israeli experience.
Mean time, doctrine will evolve. It’s amazing how much America’s war college has learned from watching other countries getting attacked, rather than jumping into wars at the drop of a helmet. Between Ukraine and Israel, books are being written and old ones discarded as obsolete.
Lasers can penetrate water vapor. And, if “barrel” rotates like gatling gun, no problem. Don’t forget, expendable air vehicles cannot be adequately armored and still move fast enough to do the job.
This is the tech that will forever end air superiority.
Fry-a-Mullah. Extra crispy.
You can turn off javascript.
I use a Disable JavaScript firefox extension.
All I do is move a slider to off on the toolbar and the article appears in full.
It is not being updated anymore but still works.
For Firefox and Chrome:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disable-javascript/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search
There are many more that are now available. Either do a search in Firefox add-ons or at google: disable javascript extension
Kool, Thank You.
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