ISRAEL’S MISSILE DEFENCE SHIELD- IRON DOME

Why in the News?

Around 2,200 rockets were fired towards southern and central Israel through a multi-pronged attack by Gaza-based militant group Hamas from land, sea and air, which was shot down by ‘Iron Dome’ defensive shield of Israel.

Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system:

1. Iron Dome is a short-range anti-rocket, anti-mortar, and anti-artillery system with an intercept range of 2.5 to 43 miles.
2. It was developed by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems of Israel.
3. Israel has at least 10 Iron Dome batteries deployed throughout the country, each being designed to defend a 60-square-mile populated area.
4. Working of the Iron Dome:
   1. Its targeting system and radar first track the trajectory of incoming projectiles.
   2. Then Tamir interceptors will be fired which will only target at those which are likely to land in populated areas or important areas/targets.
   3. In the past, Israel has put Iron Dome’s interception rate at as high as 97%.
5. In the current Hamas attack and Israeli military options, the interception rate might have degraded given the high number of rockets fired and their launch frequency may have overwhelmed the system.

Layered air defence:

1. Israel has a four-layered air defence network that can effectively tackle a range of projectiles, short-range mortars, rockets and long-range ballistic missiles.
2. The layered air defence mechanisms shall include:
   1. Iron Dome for short range
   2. David’s Sling for low to mid-range
   3. Arrow II for upper-atmospheric
   4. Arrow III for Exo-atmospheric
3. The US has funded nearly $3 billion batteries, interceptors, co-production costs, and general maintenance to Israel for Iron Dome.
4.  The U.S. began financially supporting Israel’s development of Iron Dome in 2011.
5. The US and Israel set up a joint venture ‘Raytheon Rafael Area Protection Systems’ in 2020:
   1. The Tamir interceptors (the U.S. version is called SkyHunter) are manufactured at Raytheon’s facility in US and then assembled in Israel. 
   2. Israel also maintains the ability to manufacture Tamir interceptors within Israel.

Israel’s extensive presence in the Indian military ecosystem:

1. Especially in air defence, Israel has a great presence in India’s military ecosystem.
2. Iron Dome was pitched to India in the past to tackle threats from across the Line of Control (LoC), especially by terrorist groups, which was turned down as India does not face such extremely close-range threats.
3. Instead, Indian military had expressed interest in the Arrow system.
4. India has procured some air defence elements and radars to for its indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence system.
5. Israeli-made weapons, including the Iron Dome has increasingly been procured by Ukraine repeatedly in the current war.