'Iron Dome' Rocket Shield Ready To Go, Israel Says (VIDEO)

(AP) JERUSALEM -- A system that can shoot down incoming rockets has passed its last tests and will be ready for deployment in a few months, Israel's Defense Ministry said Monday. If effective, it could have far-reaching strategic implications for Israel's battle against militant groups on its borders.

The "Iron Dome" system uses sophisticated radar to track incoming rockets, intercepting and destroying them far from their targets. It is the only anti-rocket system of its kind in the world, according to experts.

Its aims to protect Israel from homemade and imported rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza, as well as the more sophisticated rockets in the hands of Hezbollah guerrillas on Israel's border with Lebanon.

The successful tests completed Monday involved destroying multiple incoming targets in coordination with other air force systems, Israel's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the first two Iron Dome batteries would be deployed by November. Defense officials said they would be posted near the town of Sderot, near the Gaza border, a favorite target of Palestinian rocket squads.

WATCH: Video of the Israeli rocket shield

Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired thousands of homemade rockets at Israel's border settlements, often making life difficult there and traumatizing residents while causing relatively few casualties.

Israel launched a fierce three-week military campaign in Gaza in December 2008 to try to stop the barrages. During that war, Palestinian militants also fired longer range Grad missiles that hit Israeli cities, including Ashkelon and Beersheba.

Israel came under stiff international criticism after the war because of widespread destruction and death of about 1,000 civilians.

In 2006, Israel fought an intense monthlong war against Hezbollah, which fired almost 4,000 rockets at Israel during the conflict.

The Defense Ministry statement Monday said the Iron Dome system is meant "to protect the state of Israel from short-range rockets and missiles."

Wide deployment of an anti-rocket system could significantly change the Mideast military equation.

Because of the superiority of Israel's military, its enemies consider hitting Israeli cities as the most effective strategy in a war against the Jewish state.

Also, Israel expressed concern that if a Palestinian state were created in the West Bank, Israel's main international airport would be in range of Palestinian rockets. An effective anti-rocket system like "Iron Dome" could reduce those concerns.

The Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were going beyond the ministry's statement, said it would take years to deploy enough batteries to protect both borders, because of budget constraints.

In the statement, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak pledged, "We will move toward operational deployment of the batteries in the field as soon as possible."

Development of the "Iron Dome" cost about $200 million. Critics say it would prove too expensive to fire advanced missiles at cheap, primitive rockets.

Several years ago Israel deployed the "Arrow" anti-missile system, designed to intercept and destroy missiles in the upper atmosphere.

The joint Israel-U.S. system is designed to give protection against missiles that could be fired at Israel from Iran.

Comments

[MMIIXX]

02:48 AM on 07/22/2010

There is a system that is 100% guaranteed to stop missile attacks ...Stop stealing Palestinian lands with your settlements and enact the "right of return" .

[StCuthbert]

09:08 AM on 07/22/2010

Are you sure?

[Pete DiMartino]

01:57 PM on 08/09/2010

Come on know don't be nieve. Israel should do as you suggest, but it wont stop there holy war. No matter Jew, Muslim or Cristian they will always find a reason to not fallow there Gods teaching. so there blood lust is quenched. For a minute,.

[Talossa]

05:57 PM on 08/11/2010

Qur'an 33:26 -- "Allah made the Jews leave their homes by terrorizing them so that you killed some and made many captive. And He made you inherit their lands, their homes, and their wealth. He gave you a country you had not traversed before."

Qur'an 9:29 -- "Fight those who do not believe in Allah or the Last Day, who do not forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, or acknowledge the Religion of Truth (Islam), (even if they are) People of the Book (Christians and Jews), until they pay the Jizyah tribute tax in submission, feeling themselves subdued and brought low." [Another translation says:] "pay the tax in acknowledgment of our superiority and their state of subjection."

[Saco A]

12:41 PM on 07/21/2010

The US is not doing Israel a favor--it is the other way around.

The US funds--not exclusively--the project. Israel will test it. Use it. It citizens will die when it fails during the operational improvement process. And when it is ready, the US will also use it.

So no. The US is doing Israel no favor. It buys its soldiers' lives with money for others to be its Guinea pigs.

If someone should complain here, it is not the US...

[barefoot2626]

01:14 PM on 07/21/2010

> The US is not doing Israel a favor--it is the other way around.

Three billion dollars a year. So far: 114 billion.

Israel is a welfare state draining away American tax dollars better spent on Americans.

This rocket defense boondoggle serves as an excellent example of Americans paying for a project for a country that continues to grab money while thumbing its nose at us.

Israel wants this toy: let Israel pay for it out of the 3 billion dollars gifted to them every year.

[Saco A]

01:41 PM on 07/21/2010

You are simply repeating your mantra, not answering to the point...

[LIbislife]

04:52 PM on 07/21/2010

it's funny how people complain about money sent to Israel but never have any complaints about all the money sent to the many other countries we donate to.

[alysheba 3]

08:43 PM on 07/21/2010

From Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iron-dome-success-excites-but-army-balks-at-the-bill-1.303099

The U.S. Congress passed last week the Obama administration's initiative to provide Israel with a $205 million grant to procure Iron Dome batteries. To date, the Defense Ministry has bought two batteries. Several months ago, the ministry's top brass estimated the sum the Americans allotted would be sufficient for procuring eight or nine batteries, half of what is necessary to protect the Negev and the Galilee from short- and intermediate-range rockets and missiles.

Read further into the article and you find that the Israelis will be selling the project, not the US:

A French magazine had reported that Singapore is participating in funding the project to be able to procure it at a lower cost in the future.
If the success of the system is as accurate as the excited descriptions of its performance, the system may draw the attention of other countries and provide a source for funding Israel's batteries.

In other words, the US developed it, the US is funding $205 million of it's use for Israel, and Israel is seeking international investors to fund the rest with the incentive of selling the system to the international investors at a lower price.

America is subsidizing Israeli businesses.

[Saco A]

08:07 AM on 07/22/2010

As I wrote - first let others to test the system, and pay with blood for its malfunctions and the usual learning price, than the US will buy it. Sounds cheap to me.

[elisha job]

06:06 AM on 07/21/2010

The "The joint Israel-U.S. system" will cost US Taxpayers $200 million dollars.

[barefoot2626]

09:53 AM on 07/21/2010

Any hear of a defense project that came in on budget?

This is on top of the 3 billion we give them a year already.

[elisha job]

10:15 AM on 07/21/2010

Ummm...never, ever. Will never happen. $3B on top of corporate and "charitable" slush funds - I mean donations - they receive too.

[alysheba 3]

12:46 PM on 07/21/2010

It has already cost the Americans more than that, and according to Ha'aretz the Israelis are looking for funding assistance to implement the system, on the condition that the Israelis sell the technology to any "sponsoring" countries at lower rates.

America funding Israeli business.

A French magazine had reported that Singapore is participating in funding the project to be able to procure it at a lower cost in the future.

If the success of the system is as accurate as the excited descriptions of its performance, the system may draw the attention of other countries and provide a source for funding Israel's batteries.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iron-dome-success-excites-but-army-balks-at-the-bill-1.303099

[elisha job]

08:34 PM on 07/21/2010

"America funding Israeli business."

If you call War profiteering "business," you have serious problems.

[alysheba 3]

12:49 AM on 07/21/2010

No problem with some of the funding or this:

The U.S. Congress passed last week the Obama administration's initiative to provide Israel with a $205 million grant to procure Iron Dome batteries. To date, the Defense Ministry has bought two batteries. Several months ago, the ministry's top brass estimated the sum the Americans allotted would be sufficient for procuring eight or nine batteries, half of what is necessary to protect the Negev and the Galilee from short- and intermediate-range rockets and missiles.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/iron-dome-success-excites-but-army-balks-at-the-bill-1.303099

Wonder when we'll find out how much more this will cost America?

[barefoot2626]

11:02 AM on 07/21/2010

Never.

If Americans could ever come to grips how much money is sent to Israel instead of used here for worthwhile causes- health care, one example- they'd be in revolt.

[alysheba 3]

12:42 PM on 07/21/2010

Do you mean America will never find out? Doubt that because the Israelis are always willing to print in their papers how much money they have gotten from the US.

Or do you mean the US will never fund this? And at what point should the hysterical laughter stop after that?

[Saco A]

12:43 PM on 07/21/2010

The only problem with this nice little theory is that most Americans do support Israel and are eagerly willing to do so politically and financially.

Most of the money "sent to Israel" is actually a subsidy to American firms. The rest is populism.

[m2b]

09:35 PM on 07/20/2010

Or me stating the right to one's personal opinions and expressing a need for more awareness on human rights issues regardless of race and religion.

[myopinion2]

03:40 PM on 07/20/2010

I understand why so many Israelis and Palestinians unfortunately hate each other, but I don't understand why the pro-Palestinian posters and the pro-Israel posters seem to hate each other. We fight like Protestants and Catholics during the 100 years war. It makes no sense. Just about everyone here on both sides is for a 2-state solution with Israel getting out of the West Bank. We disagree what if anything the Palestinians need to provide to make that happen. We make such partisan arguments, that we lose our understanding. And our self-respect in the moment we deny respect to our ideological opponent.

Anyway, sorry for the interruption. Let the battle continue.

[StCuthbert]

05:00 PM on 07/20/2010

If I can throw in my $.02, I don't mind disagreements. It's the use of deceit when in a discussion such as lying, deflecting, strawman arguments, and waving the bloody shirt that I object to. If you and I want to sit down and talk about what the two sides should do next, that's fine. But if I say, "Israel can't trust the Palestinians to keep the peace" and you respond, "What about Deir Yassim, you r.acist?!", I'm going to become annoyed.

[barefoot2626]

01:42 AM on 07/21/2010

First: you brought up Deir Yassin.

And Israel broke five truces in one year so obviously it is the Israelis that cannot be trusted.

[formerlytheironsheik]

02:57 PM on 07/20/2010

It appears the Israel haters here are AGAINST a completely defensive system that should protect Israeli citizens from attack by Arab terrorists. Says very little about their humanity!

[StCuthbert]

03:08 PM on 07/20/2010

Dude...seriously. Do you get the feeling you're not wanted here? How many sock puppets are you going to make?

[persianadvocate]

04:26 PM on 07/20/2010

lol it appears that you are completely void of the reality where Israel is the occupying force and the Arabs denied their right to return?

[TheLonelyGod]

04:37 PM on 07/20/2010

The Arabs don't have a right of return. At least not in the way they claim they do.

[martin2]

05:15 PM on 07/20/2010

The folks are Palestinian they speak the Arabic language, they have been there for over 2,000 years their religion is Muslim, Christian and Jewish.

[formerlytheironsheik]

02:51 PM on 07/20/2010

Unlike America..if Israel publicly says it's ready to go..you can bet your last bowl of matzoh ball soup that it is!

[Seán O'Nilbud]

04:24 PM on 07/20/2010

At last they're leaving, great news.

[persianadvocate]

04:34 PM on 07/20/2010

lmao ;)

[JacksonJones]

06:08 PM on 07/20/2010

The Palestinians?

[barefoot2626]

01:45 AM on 07/21/2010

Just like SDI is ready to go!

[ScottNY]

02:35 PM on 07/20/2010

We're spending $2billion a year for Israel to occupy and subjugate the people living in the West Bank and Gaza.

Terrorism. Please.

No one mentions the terrorist attacks conducted by the Haganah.

The early Zionist like Moshe Dayan considered the group to be a paramilitary unit.
The British who were occupying Palestine at the time labeled the Haganah a terrorist group. They conducted bombings and attacks on the British and Palestinians.

They purchased and smuggled weapons from Czechoslovakia and other nations.
They organized the illegal immigration of jews from around the world to bolster the groups ranks.

They began clearing out towns and villages of Palestinians. They attacked Haifa, Jaffa, Castel, Tiberias, Tell Rish, Yazur and Salameh and many others. Also don't forget the massacre at Deir Yassin.

They took towns, villages and vast tracks of land that went beyond the 1947 U.N. brokered deal.

Oh you've never heard of this? The media here in the US never mentions it.
They do in Europe.

THIS is why the Arab armies attacked.

Ben-Gurion qoute:
“If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”

[formerlytheironsheik]

02:52 PM on 07/20/2010

Is ALL your thinking 5-6 decades OLD..or just when you think of Israel????????????????

[persianadvocate]

04:49 PM on 07/20/2010

Israel is only about 6 decades old dummy...

[Ghost of Y2K]

09:30 AM on 07/21/2010

There is no statute of limitations for this is there?

[JacksonJones]

02:57 PM on 07/20/2010

We can play the dueling qutoes/massacres game all day, and the Palestinians and other Arab leaders have some that are quite riddled with genocidal intentions and protestations that non-Muslims must never have home rule on lands that had been ruled by Muslims in the past.

The Israelis, having emerged from a particularly gruesome period, were certainly of no mind to be thrown into the sea. And the Jews of Mandatory Palestine had been subjected to masacres at the hands of the Arabs well before 1948.

Do I get to say that that is why the Jewish community insisted on home rule and why it used force to defend itself?

Apparently, not according to you.

Please excuse me if I cannot take your sanctimony very seriously.

I'd rather pursue a two state solution and have peace.

Don't you agree?

[ScottNY]

03:25 PM on 07/20/2010

Home rule where? The Jews in Palestine were a substantial minority. It wasn't until the British occupied it that the hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing Europe flooded Palestine.

What happened to them in Europe is of no fault of the Palestinians. Why were they forced to share their land?

In any event, two state solution? Why don't you fire up google and have a look at the settlements. They now encompass almost half of the West Bank.

It seems there has never been any thought of a two state solution on the part of the Israeli's. This is why there still isn't one.

And before you mention how Arafat walked away from a deal at Camp David.
What was offered was not a "state". Israel wanted control of all borders of the West Bank, they could have no Air Force, and Jerusalem was off the table. (Which by the way, the UN does not recognize their control of the east).

Read some non-bias books on the Camp David negotiations. You will see it was the Israeli's who wouldn't make any real concessions.

The media puts talking head after talking head of Israeli officials or pro Israeli "experts".
You never hear what the Palestinians have to say on the matter.

[persianadvocate]

04:36 PM on 07/20/2010

not just '"dueling quotes" An acknowledgement by the ---father of Israel--- that the land was stolen.

[Aziat]

01:41 PM on 07/20/2010

Iron Dome sounds like the next Mad Max movie...Mel Gibson in Israel, this I gotta see

[formerlytheironsheik]

02:52 PM on 07/20/2010

He'd be as popular there as many posters here!

[persianadvocate]

04:29 PM on 07/20/2010

Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic views don't excuse Israel's piracy, murder and genocide.

[lutraphobe]

01:21 PM on 07/20/2010

What about golf balls, kites, and other non-threatening flying objects? Will this require restrictions on throwing things in the air?

[up420oz]

04:20 PM on 07/20/2010

radar systems will be able to discriminate between hostile / non-hostile targets by identifying the speed, direction and height among other factors.

[persianadvocate]

11:49 PM on 07/20/2010

A Katyusha is basically like a glorified rocket whistle. What's stopping this thing from costing 40-50 mill a salvo over a gasoline-powered pipe rocket?? LOL

[barefoot2626]

10:12 AM on 07/21/2010

Hahahaha! And if they could only make this happen in six minutes, they have a remote chance of using a $50,000 missile to knock down a $300 rocket.

I'd fire $300 all day long.

[JacksonJones]

12:53 PM on 07/20/2010

The comparison between the comments on this article condemning Israel on account of a defensive system, and the complete lack of interest of the following article on HuffPo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-benmeir/the-fayyad-difference_b_651641.html

which highlights a quite promising movement that can move the conflict past the violence and into peace is all the illustration that anyone needs to understand the nature of the complaints against Israel.

The fact seems to be that if an article doesn't facilitate Israell-bashing, it just doesn't attract the interest of a certain subset of HuffPosters, no matter how much it addresses an issue that offers hope of endind the conflict and establishing a state for Palestinians.

For quite a few posting to this forum, it's all about bashing Israel, not about caring for Palestinians.

[persianadvocate]

01:28 PM on 07/20/2010

Why doesn't Israel try to succumb to just ONE of the hundreds of punishments that the UN body had voted for against its insane policies? Perhaps if Israel were not the spoiled chart, breaking international laws and killing/starving Palestinians without remorse, and OWNED UP TO ITS ACTIONS, the world would not be so incensed.

It's time for Israel to pay and pay it will :)

[JacksonJones]

01:56 PM on 07/20/2010

Setting your bizarre question aside, I will simply offer some advice: Don't hold your breath on that one.

But it's just my advice, feel free to ignore it.

[bgood0822]

02:32 PM on 07/20/2010

How about Hamas, Hezbollha and the Palestinians acknowledge Isreal's right to exist, and reframe from firing rocketts into Isreal?

[american-dolt]

12:35 PM on 07/20/2010

Who paid for that? Take a guess.

[ScottNY]

01:44 PM on 07/20/2010

Exactly, the vaunted IDF is subsidized by almost $2billion a year from the US of A.

I remember during the Lebanon war a few years ago, a reporter asked a Hezbollah militant why were they having so much success against the IDF.

He replied, "They've spent the last few years killing women and children in Gaza and the West Bank."

[martin2]

08:18 PM on 07/20/2010

Yes fanned If the super IDF was the best military on the planet they would have invaded and occupied Gaza. destroyed Hamas and pulled out.
Instead they bombed , killed and brutalized the civilian population.

[barefoot2626]

10:14 AM on 07/21/2010

Three billion. It was $2.7, Israel got a raise.

And this $200 million dollar hood ornament is on top of the three billion.

[StCuthbert]

12:31 PM on 07/20/2010

Israel spends millions on Iron Dome while Gazans continue to suffer!

Read this!: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3922441,00.html

[persianadvocate]

01:32 PM on 07/20/2010

LOL BS Israeli propaganda that doesn't survive the light of day. Forget the fact that Israel has destroyed ALL exports from Gaza (and any possibility of a sustainable economy), they have a 9,000 Sq. Ft. shopping mall now for 1.5 million people. FYI, 9,500 sq. ft. doesn't even make ONE HALF of a department store in the US. Nevermind that they don't have money or any economy! Nevermind that Gaza is the world's largest concentration camp!

Ignoring that is despicable, to say the least. Please stop posting propaganda here from Tel Aviv. We're a community of REAL users, not people paid to come here by the Israeli government and spread lies and misinformation like you.

[TheLonelyGod]

02:00 PM on 07/20/2010

Right. We're going to trust your lying words over our own eyes, Mr. "advocate." Take a walk.

[StCuthbert]

02:26 PM on 07/20/2010

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt, eh PA? Look it up in Palestinian newspapers, they are covering the same story. Start with Paltimes.net and go from there.

[JacksonJones]

12:09 PM on 07/20/2010

The howls of protest from the Israel-haters over an entirely defensive system that will defend civilians from rocket attacks tells us quite a bit about the nature of their opionions and the slanted nature of their analysis.

[martin2]

12:54 PM on 07/20/2010

No howls of protest only you are howling. Posters have expressed their concern that we the American Taxpayer are paying for the system at a time when our country is broke.
Also that the people getting the system are the attackers not the victims.

[JacksonJones]

01:56 PM on 07/20/2010

So you say, but sadly, the evidence is written below.

[barefoot2626]

02:02 AM on 07/21/2010

They are howls of laughter for seeing people spend several hundred million dollars for a bag of rocks spray painted yellow.

It is $200 Million worth of US taxpayer misfortune, though, as American taxpayers YET AGAIN take it in the shorts for the most ungrateful "ally" this country has every seen.

And it won't end at $200M, like the Osprey, the hemorrhaging won't stop.