[ad_1]
Fifty years ago, on October 6, 1973, the biggest ever attack on Israel took place. Israel was deeply shaken by the attack. Exactly 50 years after this incident, Israel is once again shaken by the attacks. On October 7, 2023, when 5000 rockets were fired from Gaza Strip in 20 minutes, the whole of Israel trembled. People panicked and hundreds lost their lives. In such a situation, the question arose that how did the Israeli agency Mossad, one of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world, and its anti-rocket missile system fail to stop the attack.
The whole world recognizes the might of Israel’s air defense system ‘Iron Dome’. Iron Dome, famous for its 90 percent accuracy and detecting and destroying enemy missiles in the air, was unable to stop Hamas attacks this time. The very next day after the establishment of Israel in May 1948, countries like Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria attacked it, to which Israel also responded befittingly. Such attacks continued to happen later also. To deal with such attacks, Israel started strengthening its borders and defense system. Iron Dome is one of the most powerful weapons of Israel’s defense system. Other countries also have anti-drone systems, but Israel’s system is considered to be the most powerful.
Cost of Iron Dome
According to reports, the cost of Israel’s protective shield Iron Dome, which shoots down enemy missiles and rockets in the air, is around Rs 3 lakh crore. Talking about its interception range, it is from 2.5 miles to 45 miles. In the year 2021, the Institute for National Security Studies had shared a report saying that the cost of the interceptors owned by Israel is 1 lakh dollars, while the cost of one interceptor is 50,000 dollars. Only the interceptor destroys the enemy missile. Meaning, if Israel had shot down all 5,000 rockets of Hamas, it would have cost Rs 2,079 crore. Hamas has Qassam rockets, which cost 300 to 800 dollars, that is, Hamas spends between 25 thousand to 90 thousand dollars to make one of its rockets. The New Arab quoted Israeli experts as saying that Hamas can fire about 140 missiles in a minute. Accordingly, Hamas spends crores of rupees to stop missiles.
How does Iron Dome work?
Three main things are involved in the way Iron Dome works. First – identification and tracking of enemy missiles, second – war management and weapon control and third – firing the missile. As soon as the enemy fires a rocket towards Israel, it identifies and tracks it with the help of the Iron Dome radar system. After this, the control system detects the impact point and how much damage the rocket will cause if it is shot in the air and how far its impact will be if it is shot down in the air. After this, after receiving the command from the control system, the missile is fired from the launcher. This missile is called interceptor. The missile explodes after reaching the rocket and this destroys both the enemy missile and the interceptor. In Israel the interceptor is called Tamir.
Why did Iron Dome fail this time? Iron Dome works with 90 percent accuracy. Meaning, if 100 missiles come towards him simultaneously, he will destroy 90 of them in the air. Israel deployed it in 2011. Israel started building Iron Dome in 2006 after the attack by Hezbollah terrorists. This time Hamas fired so many rockets at Israel in a short time that Iron Dome was unable to stop many of them. More rockets were fired by Hamas than its capacity. Hamas keeps trying to find loopholes in Israel’s powerful defense system so that it can attack it.
