Inside the Iron Dome, the invisible shield protecting Israeli cities

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Inside the Iron Dome, the invisible shield protecting Israeli cities

时间：2024-10-31 05:00 来源：未知作者：admin 阅读：次

First, the air-raid sirens blare.

The "iron boom" comes next – the familiar sound of Israel's air defence system in action as interceptor missiles take out rockets in mid-air.

For Niva, who lives in a town in Israel's Haifa District, the boom signals safety.

"In general, there is trust in the Iron Dome's ability to protect us," she said.

Imagine an invisible shield that covers an entire mid-sized city, about double the size of Hobart, Tasmania's capital.

Consider that dome is tested by at least 180 ballistic missiles launched from Iran.

"If you can hear a boom in the air, you can be happy," said Hilla Haddad Chmelnik, an aerospace engineer who played a key role in the Iron Dome's development.

The Iron Dome consists of three key components.

An Iron Dome battery is made up of a radar, a command centre and a launcher.

First, it uses sophisticated radars to detect, identify and track incoming threats within a 100km radius.

Next, the command centre acts.

Commanders analyse the speed and trajectory of a threat.

Analysts say if a missile is travelling at 1km per second, there would be – at most – one minute to respond to the attack.

The interceptor missiles are the third crucial element.

Each Iron Dome battery includes three  to four launchers, which can hold up to 20 missiles.

If projectiles are on course to hit a populated area, interceptor missiles are fired to take them out.

If projectiles are on course to hit a populated area, interceptor missiles are fired to take them out.

Since being deployed in 2011, the Iron Dome has become a signature component in Israel's armoury.

Developed with backing from the United States, it has been described as one of the most effective air defence systems on the planet.

Each battery reportedly costs about $US100 million ($157 million), and each interceptor missile about $US50,000 ($76,000).

By comparison, a single interceptor missile used by a US Patriot defence system can cost up to $US4 million ($6 million).

Israel said the Iron Dome intercepted more than 2,400 projectiles in the first decade of operation, saving thousands of lives.

But over the past year, it has been working overtime.

A system built for 'short, intense bursts'

The Iron Dome was designed to take out mostly cheap, short-range rockets fired by militant groups across its borders.

Its Tamir interceptor missiles soar through the air at two times the speed of sound, using steering fins and heat-seeking sensors to come within 10 metres of a target.

In a matter of seconds, the warheads detonate into fragments of high-speed metal to take out threats.

These days, Israel is facing extended, high intensity fighting on several fronts.

The volumes of missiles, drones and rockets hurtling towards the country from Iran and its proxies are larger, more powerful and sophisticated.

And some are managing to break through.

Israel's Iron Dome intercepts rockets in Ashkelon on October 1, 2024.

Over the past year, more than 26,000 missiles and drones have been launched at Israel from multiple fronts, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

It said the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah had fired more than 3,000 rockets and missiles from Lebanon over a two-week period in October alone.

One of the Iron Dome's developers, Haddad Chmelnik, conceded the system wasn't built for a conflict of this length and intensity.

"When we designed Iron Dome, we never imagined it would have to function under such continuous strain," she said in a US media interview earlier this month.

"The system was built for short, intense bursts of fighting – not for a war that lasts nearly a year."

The current conflict in the Middle East broke out after Hamas launched a terrorist attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

This prompted Israel's subsequent strikes on Gaza, which have claimed the lives of more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Escalating fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has since pushed the conflict into Lebanon.

Layers of defence

Iran and Hezbollah have shown they have weapons in their arsenal that can strike with a range of up to 1,500km.

So, these can reach anywhere in Israel.

The Iron Dome is optimised for shorter range threats, but it doesn't operate alone.

There is a layered air defence system which also includes David's Sling and Arrow 2 and Arrow 3, which provide defence against medium- and long-range missiles.

Israel also has US Patriot systems in operation, which have a range of about 160km.

And this month the Pentagon sent Israel a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery (THAAD) to defend the country against Iran's ballistic missile attacks.

A new set of threats

Samuel Hickey, a Paul Castleman policy fellow at the US Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said saturation was the biggest threat for any air defence system.

And the power of Iran's October 1 attack on Israel exposed those cracks.

When Iran unleashed its first direct strikes on Israel in April, it launched about 300 missiles and attack drones towards the country.

Israel said more than "99 per cent" were intercepted and there was minimal damage.

Members of military personnel inspect apparent remains of a ballistic missile lying in the desert, following a massive missile and drone attack by Iran on Israel in April.

Professor Hickey said most of the projectiles were slower moving cruise missiles and drones that gave defenders time to prepare.

But the October 1 attack was "a different animal," he said.

"Frankly, it was surprising. It was a much larger, and much more threatening."

Iran fired some of its most advanced weapons, including at least 180 ballistic missiles – a record amount – stressing air defences.

While most of the missiles were destroyed before reaching their target, some did impact and cause minimal damage.

Iain Boyd, professor of aerospace engineering sciences at University of Colorado Boulder, said it was particularly hard to defend against ballistic missiles.

These can fly at hypersonic speeds above mach-5, making them much harder to intercept by ground-based systems.

"They fly in the region of the atmosphere that radars aren't designed to look at," Professor Boyd said.

"What Israel is facing is a larger volume, as well as very modern weapons that the Iron Dome really wasn't designed to defend against."

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has been firing continued attacks deep into Israeli territory using ballistic missiles with bigger payloads and longer ranges.

And for the first time, cities have been directly hit.

"What we're seeing with these weapons is that the precision is starting to improve," Professor Hickey said.

"Even when the precision is not exceptional, as long as you launch enough to saturate specific points in Israel then that's a serious concern."

Drones have also been evading defences.

Over the course of the current conflict, about 1,200 drones have been fired at Israel, and 221 have gotten through air defences, according to the IDF.

One managed to hit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's holiday home in Caesarea in northern Israel this month.

It is believed to have been a Sayyad 107, the same type of drone the Israeli military confirmed was used in a Hezbollah attack that killed four Israeli soldiers at a military base south of Haifa on October 13.

The death toll from Israeli air strikes on Lebanon since October 8, 2023, has reached more than 2,700, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

Some drones are hard to see and difficult for radars to spot, flying along complex routes at low altitudes, Professor Hickey said.

And when it comes to the amount of interceptor missiles available, it's a game of numbers.

Can the dome withstand more tit-for-tat?

Over the weekend, Israel conducted a wave of air strikes on military sites in Iran in response to Tehran's October 1 attack.

Iran said its attack was retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.

The US said Israel's strike on Iran should mark an end of the "tit-for-tat" between the two nations.

But Tehran has vowed to "respond firmly and effectively".

Analysts have warned that Israel's attack on Iran means full-scale war was closer than ever.

And although Tehran would be feeling more vulnerable to future attacks, it was unlikely to have shown its full capabilities.

Professor Hickey said Israel's air defences were among the best in the world, but saturation would always be a challenge.

If the conflict were to broaden and last for years, then the Iron Dome's strength would come down to interceptor supplies.

"The Iron Dome is incredibly good, but no system is perfect," he said.

"Israel has been in a position where the United States and other partners have been willing to engage and help take out any incoming barrages, but it's hard to count on that moving forward."

Additional 3D modelling: Jack Fisher

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