Keep in mind that at least 95% of terrorist rockets will hit vacant land if Iron Dome does nothing, and those are ignored by the system. Essentially, the $65k missile stops the equivalent of 20 rockets, or $10k, from doing any damage. When you factor in the differential value placed on life between Israel, where life is cherished, and the terrorists, for whom death is celebrated, and Iron Dome sounds much better. Israel cannot afford to exclusively defend, but it is very nice that they can dramatically cut the price paid by civilians. As for offense, I'm thrilled to see naval gunfire support being used. That has a much lower cost than Iron Dome, and it delivers ordnance on target efficiently.
>> those [that will fall harmlessly into open space] are ignored by the system
I wondered about that. If so it’s a pretty sophisticated system — with a lot of responsibility placed on its *correct* operation.
I hope IronDomeCo didn’t hire away too many Microsoft programmers to staff their engineering team. :-)