How Iron Dome works, the powerful anti-missile shield with which Israel defended itself against Iran’s attack

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 He used it again to repel an unprecedented attack from Will with “more than 200” drones and missiles, according to the Israeli Army.

WATCH: LIVE | Iran launches more than 200 missiles and drones at Israel in unprecedented attack

The Dome, also known as Iron Dome, is a short-range air defense system deployed in various parts of the country to combat attacks with missiles, rockets, artillery shells, 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 control and weapons management and the missile launcher armed with 20 Tamir missiles.

It was designed by the company Rafael Advanced Defense System LTD, a private company with very close ties to the Israeli armed forces that builds air, sea and land defense systems.

It also received funding of more than US$200 million from the United States, a great ally of Israel.

Its manufacturer guarantees 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 his power was seen again when he intercepted the attack launched by Iran.

The attacks of the last few hours have once again revealed the power of the Israeli Iron Dome. (Getty Images).

When air raid sirens sounded, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Israeli civilians they could hear explosions.

“The Air Defense Complex is fully operational and intercepting threats whenever necessary, including at this very moment,” they stated.

“Right now, countless aircraft are in the air, ready to face any threat. It is possible that explosions will be heard due to interceptions or falling debris,” they added.

Iron dome. (BBC).

How it works

When a rocket is fired at 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 hit urban areas and those that miss their target. The system then decides which ones should be intercepted.

If the incoming rocket heads towards a populated area or 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 and Israel has at least 10. The system’s manufacturer claims to have achieved more than 2,000 interceptions so far.

For what purpose was it installed?

He iron dome It has its roots in the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamic 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 fall within 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 the Ronald Reagan administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) project.

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 against Israel during the First Gulf War.

In early 2010, Iron Dome had already It successfully passed 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 at the city of Beersheba, in the south of the country.

The Iron Dome launcher fires an interceptor missile at rockets fired from Gaza. (Reuters).

“Almost infallible”

On October 7 last year, the sophisticated system was apparently crushed by the surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

The devastating operation, which involved coordinated attacks by air, land and sea, took everyone by surprise.

In the first hours of the attack, Hamas launched thousands of missiles at 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 Israeli intelligence failure.

But the question many asked was whether the so-called Iron Dome was – at least at the beginning of the attack – crushed by Hamas missiles.

The Israeli Defense Ministry said at the time that Iron Dome is capable of dealing with multiple threats simultaneously, with a success rate of up to 90%.

In the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Iron Dome was subdued. (Getty Images).

At the start of the attack, Hamas was able to fire thousands of missiles in rapid succession: according to the IDF, in the early hours of the attack Hamas launched 3,200 rockets, a number potentially greater than the system’s interceptors can handle.

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 recharging the system can take some time.

It was not the first time that the Iron Dome was crushed by a Hamas attack.

In May 2023, the IDF declared that a “technical error” caused the system to malfunction during an outbreak of violence in the Gaza Strip.

Earlier that month, several rockets fired 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 into the coastal city of Ashkelon “a technical problem prevented some rockets from being intercepted and this could have caused the deaths of two women and injured dozens.” , reported. O Times of Israel.

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Iran tries to dominate Israeli air defenses

Analysis by Joe Inwood, international affairs correspondent for BBC News Evening

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 defense analytics firm Sibylline.

“Iran’s tactics appear to have learned lessons from Ukraine, where the same drones were used in combination 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 interlocking launchers, each loaded with 16 missiles.

The Israeli anti-missile system is one of the most sophisticated in the world, but it is not infallible. (Getty Images).

Each is capable of shooting down a drone or missile that enters the air.

Iran seems to have calculated that overcoming this system requires quantity and quality.

However, according to Crump, it is a strategy whose success is far from guaranteed.

“Israel is not Ukraine; Apparently American and probably British planes are helping to destroy targets,” he 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 can cause will likely influence the level of any Israeli response.

Source: Elcomercio