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How Rocket Fired at Majdal Shams Got Through

(Globes) Dean Shmuel Elmas - For nearly ten months, attacks by Iran's proxies in Lebanon have cost human lives. Many of Hizbullah's attacks have been by UAVs, but in the case of the attack on Majdal Shams the weapon was an Iranian-manufactured Falaq 1 rocket with a 50kg. warhead. Dr. Yehoshua Kalisky, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, explained why the rocket that managed to hit Majdal Shams on Saturday, killing 12 children, was not intercepted. "It may be that the air defense system was swamped by targets," he said. "Hizbullah sometimes deceives the system with decoy UAVs while firing a rocket, or several rockets at once. Another possibility is that the rocket was fired from very short range. Iron Dome is effective against rockets launched to a certain altitude, and the lower the altitude, the less effective it is." "A third factor that can affect interception is that Iron Dome needs time to react to a rocket. Anti-tank missiles such as the Kornet reach speeds of 300-400 meters per second. Large rockets with bigger motors can reach 700-800 meters per second or more. Such a rocket covers a range of 10 km. in about 12 seconds, and it's therefore difficult for Iron Dome to intercept it." "The degree of success of Iron Dome in the north is lower than in the Gaza area. That stems from the character of the battlefield, with launches at low altitude and at short range, which Hizbullah does deliberately. We saw that the UAV launched towards the Karish gas platform was successfully intercepted, apparently thanks to the distance and the altitude, which made it possible to spot it and to intercept it without any damage caused."
2024-08-01 00:00:00
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