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Iron Dome Proves It Can Withstand Hamas Rocket Barrages
(Wall Street Journal) Yaroslav Trofimov - Israel's Iron Dome system, deployed since 2011 and built and maintained with $1.6 billion in U.S. funding, consists of a network of connected batteries and radars that fire at rockets that seem to be heading to populated areas and ignore those likely to fall into empty fields. In the current round of fighting, Hamas is firing scores of rockets simultaneously. Hamas "is trying to challenge the system. They thought that Iron Dome would stop functioning, but this didn't happen," said Danny Yatom, a former head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service. The lopsided casualty toll isn't due to a lack of Hamas trying. Its rockets have been aimed relentlessly at Israeli population centers. "If it wasn't for the Iron Dome, all these rockets would have been falling on our heads and we would be counting our dead in the hundreds," said Moti Hetzroni, 77, of Ashkelon. Iron Dome is managing to destroy 90% of the incoming volleys. The limited nature of Israeli casualties means that Prime Minister Netanyahu, so far at least, isn't facing public pressure to launch a ground invasion of Gaza. "Everyone has been quietly impressed by the ability of Iron Dome to handle the sheer volume," said Michael Stephens, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. Iron Dome has the capacity to launch some 800 interceptors at a given time, making it hard for Hamas to overwhelm the system, said Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute in London. In peacetime, the Iron Dome system usually utilizes two missiles at a time to intercept incoming rockets, but in the current high-intensity conflict Israel has shifted to using one interceptor per one rocket, an Israeli Air Force general said. Israel hasn't asked the U.S. for more Iron Dome interceptor missiles but has ordered Israel's own defense industry to increase production, he added.