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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel successfully tests missile interceptor |
| 2008-07-06 |
| hellooooo Iran! Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday. The "Iron Dome" system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas. Citing Israeli security officials, public radio said the system would also be effective against mortar fire which has a much smaller window of warning. In January Prime Minister Ehud Olmert viewed a prototype of the 200-million-dollar (140-million-euro) system, which is being developed under contract by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer. Iron Dome is part of a multi-layered defence system aimed at protecting Israel from both short-range missiles fired by militants in Gaza or Lebanon and longer-range missiles in the arsenals of regional foes Iran and Syria. |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #9 Iron Dome uses small $50,000(?) missiles to intercept small rockets, mortars and artillery. If I was Hizb Allah, I would run Israel out of ammo in 24 hours or bankrupt them in a month with $200 rockets. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-07-06 16:40 |
| #8 And with what side effects. If this is a higher-powered tactical laser system, chances are good it's chemically powered. Those chemicals are nasty stuff - the logistics load is substantial, one of several reasons we haven't rushed our own prototypes into production. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-07-06 16:30 |
| #7 What maters is how much it cost to operate. |
| Posted by: Black Charlie Glising4125 2008-07-06 16:00 |
| #6 $ 200-million buys an entire system? Why does the DoD continue to pay retail Maybe if the US was the size of one of its smaller states, the DoD could get that kind of price as well. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-07-06 14:36 |
| #5 This system is probably the equivalent of ten to twenty or so equivalents to the plananx systems in place in Iraq, except with a longer range gun. |
| Posted by: Abdominal Snowman 2008-07-06 13:35 |
| #4 besoeker, Israel is just a tad .... more compact ... than the US. Takes a little less in the way of system for defense. And - their airspace management is orders of magnitude less complex than ours along the borders and elsewhere. That greatly simplifies the technical requirements of their system. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-07-06 13:14 |
| #3 But... but... just look at all the smoke it emits! No doubt the U.N. will want them to close the project down so it doesn't contribute to Globull Worming... This is cool. Go Isael. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-07-06 11:16 |
| #2 $ 200-million buys an entire system? Why does the DoD continue to pay retail? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-07-06 10:20 |
| #1 Good job. Pull the last effective weapon away from the terrorists. All they will have left is the occasional suicide bomber/attacker. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-07-06 10:13 |