Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense device under warning from Hezbollah in Lebanon: NPR

Tension is at its peak on Israel’s border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces were firing in coordination with Hezbollah. In later life, the leader of Hezbollah warned that if war broke out, ultimately all of Israel would be in danger.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said on June 19, “The enemy knows very well that no place will be safe from our missiles and drones.”

Keeping those guns from hitting Israeli territory is the job of an advanced wind protection device called Iron Dome. It has intercepted thousands of missiles over time, and has been essential to defending Israel’s cities during the actual conflict in Gaza.

However some professionals warn that Hezbollah’s arsenal could push the gadget past its limits.

Iranian-backed forces have been carrying out increasingly brazen attacks using explosive drones and low-flying missiles, which Iron Dome has struggled to stop. And later, Hezbollah revealed a 10-minute-long surveillance video from an unmanned aerial automobile that showed the dates of multiple Iron Dome launchers being fired. Some of the sensitive locations it filmed used to be a reserved production facility belonging to Israeli defense company Rafael – the company that makes missile defense equipment.

Since the actual war began, Israel’s Iron Dome wind protection device has stopped attacks by Hamas, Iran and Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Anadolu/via Getty Pictures

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Anadolu/via Getty Pictures

The implication was clear: Iron Dome is among Hezbollah’s points of interest. And this could be a small style of thing coming back, says Tom Karako, director of the Missile Protection Challenge at the Heart for Strategic and World Research. Unlike the Palestinian party Hamas, Hezbollah is believed to have a vast arsenal of precision-guided guns, which it could use in a conflict with Israel.

“Look, there are not enough Iron Domes in the world to counter the 100,000 or so rockets that Hezbollah has reported,” he warned.

a miraculous savior

The Iron Dome was first deployed in 2011, and has become iconic among Israeli crowds. The gadget is composed of 3 parts: a high-powered radar gadget, focused laptop and interceptor missiles.

Iron Dome uses its radar to attack incoming rockets. Its targeting computer is capable of responding extremely briefly, calculating not only where the incoming rocket is, but where it is going to land. If the rocket is likely to hit an isolated branch, the missile gadget will not fire – but if it is headed toward a populated branch, Iron Dome will deploy interceptors.

Interceptors can fly for a short time to the trail of the incoming rocket, where they explode, sending shrapnel into the target.

Caraco says Iron Dome works because it is cost-effective, not state-of-the-art. Interceptor missiles are a bit cheaper, they are usually fired only when they are really needed. “They prioritized being selective about the shots they took, and they prioritized cost,” he says.

According to the manufacturer, this gadget boasts a success rate of over 90%. And its efficiency has surprised even the professionals. During the 2021 conflict, Palestinian terrorist groups fired a number of rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Israel’s Tel Aviv.

Iron Dome is a network of high-powered radar, focused computers and missile launchers spread throughout Israel. It gives priority to incoming rockets, and when they head towards populated areas it tries to execute them with ease.

Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Pictures

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Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Pictures

One of the rockets passed through, killing a handful of civilians, although several others were intercepted. Yehoshua Kalisky was on a highway in Tel Aviv when a barrage came. They saw Iron Dome interceptors flying overhead and attacking the incoming rockets.

He says, “I lay down and looked at the sky, and it was like a miracle – every missile that came was shot down.”

Kalisky is a senior researcher and missile defense expert at the Institute for National Security Research in Tel Aviv. He says much of Iron Dome’s fate in Gaza boils down directly to its radar. “It has an excellent radar system – very fast, very accurate – and it’s all automated,” he says.

gap within the dome

However, Kaliski is paying attention as Gadget has struggled to do business with Hezbollah’s methods. The gang is using anti-tank missiles, which fly low to the meadow. The missiles, which can only be fired at short levels, are too fast for Iron Dome to intercept, and they fly below the minimum altitude of the interceptor missiles.

Kaliski says unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) also pose a drawback to Iron Dome’s radar: UAVs are made of carbon-based fabrics like wood and plastic that don’t reflect radar as well as steel rockets. Are. “They are very difficult to locate.” Additionally, the Lebanese border is home to a dozen birds that can be detected by radar devices for UAVs. “You have a lot of false alarms,” he says.

“To be honest, I think Hezbollah recognized our shortcomings,” says Zvika Haimovich, a retired brigadier general who oversaw Israel’s air defenses from 2015 to 2018. For this reason, they have been using UAVs more and more in the last few weeks. ,

An Israeli soldier can be seen in an area damaged by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile, just like on the Lebanese border in June. Hezbollah uses low-flying anti-tank missiles and small drones to avoid Iron Dome interceptors.

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Via Bloomberg/Getty Pictures

Haimovich says the conflict with Hezbollah would be nothing like previous wars with Gaza, including the one that began on October 7. “Hezbollah today has double and triple the number of rockets and missiles launched by Hamas in October 7,” he says.

If truth be told, the exact dimensions and composition of Hezbollah’s arsenal is carefully unknown. “We often see numbers like 150,000 or 200,000 (rockets),” says Fabian Hinz, an expert on Japanese missile arsenals at the World Institute for Strategic Research in Berlin. “It’s a little difficult to say how serious these estimates are… but in general we can say that these are quite large reserves.”

Many of Hezbollah’s rockets are unguided, short-range technology, Hinz says, although the crews also have additional sophisticated guns. “I would say a major difference between Hamas and Hezbollah is that Hezbollah has precision-guided weapons,” Hinz says.

He says these guns could threaten Iron Dome in a different way: by attacking the missile launchers.

“If you know where the Iron Dome (missile) batteries are, you can actually try to take the batteries out yourself,” he says. If truth be told, Hezbollah did release video of an apparent crash on the Iron Dome launcher in June, although it is unclear whether it was a real gadget or a decoy.

Iron Dome missiles intercepted Hezbollah rockets over Lebanon in June. Since October 7, Israel has been using interceptors as quickly as it can, says Zvika Haimovich, a retired brigadier general who oversaw Israel’s air defenses from 2015 to 2018.

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Xinhua Information Company/via Getty Pictures

Haimovich says Iron Dome can still provide coverage. It would likely perform better than some of Hezbollah’s long-range missiles because they fly higher and are easier to intercept. In April, Iron Dome and alternative Israeli and US missile defense systems were largely capable of intercepting a series of high-flying ballistic missiles fired by Iran.

purchasing age

A new conflict in Lebanon will challenge the Iron Dome in a different way: Israel does not have an unlimited collection of interceptor missiles in its stockpile. Haimovich says that since October 7, Israel has faced attacks from every direction. Since he did this, he is spending missiles faster than he is able to manufacture them.

“After eight months of thousands of disruptions, this is a huge challenge,” he says.

Karako says that if there were a broader conflict with Hezbollah, it was unlikely that Iron Dome would be able to provide the type of coverage that Israelis have become familiar with.

However, he says, this is not unexpected. The truth is that negative magical protectors can provide unlimited protection to voters.

He says, “Air defense buys time – buys decision makers time to end the conflict by other means.”

However, he adds, “Just because you buy time, it doesn’t guarantee that decision makers will make good decisions.”

Israel’s Iron Dome launched in May presumably to intercept rockets fired from Lebanon. Missile defense expert Tom Karako says wind protection “gives decision makers time to end the conflict by other means.”

Jala Mare/AFP via Getty Pictures

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Jala Mare/AFP via Getty Pictures

NPR’s Itay Stern contributed to this file.