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Why Israel's Iron Dome Won't Really Help Ukraine Against Russia

(Ha'aretz) Sam Sokol - Despite calls for Jerusalem to provide Kyiv with missile defense technology, experts believe that logistical and technological limitations mean that Israel's Iron Dome would provide little practical benefit to Ukraine. Tal Inbar, a senior research fellow at the U.S.-based Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, believes that while the system could likely intercept some Russian munitions, such as Grad rockets, the large land mass of Ukraine and the variety of Russia's projectiles means that exporting Iron Dome batteries "is more of a theoretical question and wishful thinking by Ukraine" than a practical solution. "The larger the country is, you need a much larger number of radars and interceptors. Israeli is a small country, in that regard it's an advantage to missile defense. That's not the case in Ukraine," he said. Saudi forces, with their advanced missile defense capabilities, are still struggling to prevent Houthi strikes because of the large territory they have to defend. Moreover, Russia is using ballistic and hypersonic missiles which cannot be stopped by a short-range system like Iron Dome. There would also be logistical difficulties to providing Ukraine with Iron Dome. The "implementation of such a system is complex and a long process, so even if Israel was willing...the time to make it operational is not so short." Beyond that, the IDF has a limited supply of interceptors, with the U.S. Congress only recently approving a $1 billion allocation for Israel to replenish the missiles it expended in shooting down Hamas rockets during last summer's fighting. "So it is a little bit naive [to think] that Israel could supply other countries with a sufficient amount of interceptors," Inbar said.
2022-03-24 00:00:00
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