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‘IRON DOME’ OVERWHELMED
Aviationintel ^

Posted on 11/21/2012 7:50:10 AM PST by chessplayer

Israel’s highly controversial and very expensive ‘Iron Dome’ rocket defense system is being tested by extremist militant groups to its very limits. At $65,000 per round to hard kill a $500 rocket, its one expensive piece of mind that Israel has a lot riding on. It would seem that the strategic goal is to make rocket launches a worthless and unacceptable risk with no reward to the terrorists that launch these terror weapons, as opposed to an affordable defense system intended for continuous and prolonged use.

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To: Spktyr
In any given lot of AAA shells, something like 3-10% of them (at a minumum) are going to have fuses that don’t work as advertised and they will be coming down somewhere.

In which case, the batteries could be positioned in such a way that UXO falls in Gaza :-)

That having been said, I understand your point about fuze failure rates. A 10% failure rate would not be good.

81 posted on 11/21/2012 6:37:42 PM PST by fso301
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To: fso301

My personal favorite idea would be to put a developed M-THEL or Nautilus laser system or three a bit forward of the Iron Dome systems (but out of easy rifle range) and have them shoot down anything launching out of Gaza while it’s still over Gaza and in ‘boost phase.’ The wreckage would then land on Gaza and Gazans - and they couldn’t claim it was Israeli missile debris. :D Plus they wouldn’t have any fresh explosive from duds that they didn’t already have.


82 posted on 11/21/2012 8:53:31 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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Should have lowered expectations by calling it the “fly trap”.


83 posted on 11/21/2012 8:57:27 PM PST by Gene Eric (Demoralization is a weapon of the enemy. Don't get it, don't spread it!)
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To: BobL
Keep in mind that it’s a two-way street and that Israel is learning tons of stuff by using this system in combat.

From what I can tell, the system has done very well. As to the cost - even 1000 missiles is $60,000,000...not a huge amount of money, even for Israel. And the rockets that threaten their big cities cost a lot more than $500...and have to be smuggled into position.


Exactly and agreed. They have real life testing experience now. Everything prior to this was mostly simulation and minimal real time testing.

I will make a prediction that Rafael will be advancing counter battery system technology as an adjunct to Iron Dome. The next war will improve the 80% interception to 95%. That is my prediction.
84 posted on 11/21/2012 9:03:44 PM PST by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
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To: PA Engineer

“The next war will improve the 80% interception to 95%. That is my prediction.”

The other good part is that Israel was basically taking their time getting these working - now they have a reason to step up production, by an order of magnitude.

They really need to be ready for the time that Iran simply launches 200+ missiles at them at once and time is not on Israel’s side.


85 posted on 11/22/2012 5:33:02 AM PST by BobL (You can live each day only once. You can waste a few, but don't waste too many.)
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To: BobL
They really need to be ready for the time that Iran simply launches 200+ missiles at them at once and time is not on Israel’s side.

Agreed. Hezbollah was watching.
86 posted on 11/22/2012 1:06:13 PM PST by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
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