The Israeli Iron Dome: 80% Effective
That is impressive. Finally, the threat of short range rockets tossed from the Palestinians in Gaza only have a 25% chance of getting through. The rest of them meet their destruction high up in mid-air from the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system. On Monday, the Palestinians fired 65 short range missiles and iron dome claimed 23 hits. Granted, the accuracy has improved as the system, which is newly deployed, irons out its kinks. The Iron Dome system will detect an incoming missile and within seconds fire an intercepting missile up to 44 miles away. Each iron Dome has 20 missiles, a command and control system and radar, each costing $50 million. When the missiles are fired from Gaza, they are airborne for 60 seconds before impact and usually leave an exhaust trail the naked eye can see. The US contributed $205 million to build additional Iron Dome systems. Israel has spent $1 billion since 2007 developing the system.
Since March 9th, 2012, Palestinians have fired over 230 missiles. Most of the missiles have not caused serious damage or injury\death. The Iron Dome was so effective that the Palestinians began to fire are towns of range. There is about 4-5 Iron Dome systems repelling the rockets, but to cover the whole Gaza border, a total of 13 is needed. The cost at defending Israeli residents is pricey, each rocket of the Iron Dome costs nearly $50,000 x 20 per system. The cost of the Iranian missiles being fired from Gaza is $800.
The Iron Dome negates much of the danger for short range missiles, and Israel has the Arrow II system to defeat Iran's Shabab-3 missile that has a range of 800 miles and developing its Sling system to destroy missiles with a 180 mile range.
These missile systems should provide Israeli residents more comfort and security from growing missile attacks.