Israel's 'Iron Dome' defence system

[Ferret]

Israel's missile interceptor defence system has been in action in recent days. The concept seems to have improved somewhat in reliability since the Patriot days of the Gulf wars.

Quite amazing you can shoot down incoming rockets in such numbers.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxwCYZ6Zhew&hd=1]Rockets Intercepted By The Iron Dome Missile Defence System In Israel - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMBSWGYlnF0"]Rafael: Iron Dome[/ame]

[THE BOOGER]

Much better and cheaper than patriot but still 1 hundred grand a missile, in the last 2 weeks hamas has fired about 1000 rockets at israel so shear numbers will make it expensive I dont like the idea of 1 launcher per town/city what about reloading times that would be the weakness.

[Blknight.aus]

modular cartridge like a magazine on a rifle, I expect the battle time reload would be less than 15 minutes

of course the logistics of supplying the reloads would probably be the limiting factor

[THE BOOGER]

I would also assume that a battery would be kept in reserve for reload times looking at the video it looks like hamas is trying to just blitz the system and overwhelm it, hasnt work so far wonder who will run out of money first

[Ferret]

looking at the video it looks like hamas is trying to jsut blitz the systm and overwhelm it, hasnt work so far wonder who will run out of money first

Yeah costs lost of money, ~100k$ / missile vs ~1k$ / rocket.

But look at it this way. Israel can afford to sit back and let the Palestinians stew. Hamas has to handle the political heat caused by death and destruction among its own people. The Israel govt. escapes that short term political heat from its own population demanding it "do something now" allowing it time to prepare a planned response or hold out for settlement on its own terms.

I guess they reckon it is worth a few $ to them.

[juddy]

Have a look at these pictures, showing the resupply trucks, looks like theres a few different modules that are quick loaded to the launcher..