Recently, Israel launched an air strike on the Palestinian Gaza strip, causing many deaths and injuries, and attacking a number of local military monitoring points, and then the Palestinian military organization Jehad announced that hundreds of rockets were fired at Israel, but most of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system.
This raises the question, how powerful is this Iron Dome defense system? What if it were facing the most discussed Hipmaster rocket launcher recently?
First of all, the "Iron Dome" defense system is specially developed by Israel to deal with rockets fired from Palestine, developed by the Israeli state-owned arms company Raphael Defense Systems, and officially deployed in November 2010, which can intercept short-range rockets and short-range missiles at a range of 5 to 70 kilometers in all-weather conditions, including in a vicious environment.
The Iron Dome defense system is equipped with the ELM2084 multi-mission active phased array radar, mounted in the rear of a six-wheeled truck. Developed by Israel's Elta Systems Branch, the radar provides early warning of all high-ballistic rockets fired from the Palestinian Gaza Strip into Israeli territory and can track and predict the trajectory of incoming rockets. The radar has an effective detection range of 1,000 kilometers for incoming rockets, and can lock on to 200 rockets per minute at the same time, and can also calculate the areas where those incoming rockets are likely to hit, so as to prioritize the interception of more threatening rockets.
It is understood that each set of "Iron Dome" system will be equipped with six launchers, each launcher can carry about 20 Tamir small radar-guided missiles, this missile is about 3 meters long, weighs 90 kg, has a diameter of 160 mm, is equipped with photoelectric sensors and steering tails to facilitate more accurate interception of targets, and the missile has a booster rocket engine that can provide additional power to the missile when intercepting the target.
Not only that, but the missile is also equipped with a destroying warhead, and the target is intercepted in a hit-and-kill attack method. Fragments from traditional explosions can cause damage to Israeli people, buildings and vehicles, while hit-and-kill attacks shoot targets as far away as possible to minimize the fall of shrapnel debris in Israeli cities. At the same time, the warhead of this missile is also equipped with a close-in fuze, if the missile does not accurately hit the intercepting target, it will detonate the explosives in the body when approaching the target, blowing up the target.
And the "Iron Dome" defense system reacts very quickly, the enemy launches a rocket within five seconds will be detected by the radar of the Iron Dome system, and after five seconds to calculate the target path and track, once the target is found to be a threat, it will immediately launch missiles to intercept, the missile will rush to the target at a speed of Mach 2.2 at the fastest, and when approaching the target for 2 kilometers, the radar seeker will be activated to control the missile to intercept and destroy the target.
The defense area of an "Iron Dome" air defense system is about 150 square kilometers, not only rockets but also grenades and short-range missiles. In the protracted armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, the greatest threat to Israel is Palestinian rockets, and it is understood that from 2000 to 2008, Palestinian armed groups fired more than 4,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip, including grenades, causing great harm to the Israeli population living in southern Israel, and the Iron Dome system was deployed to a large extent to protect the Israeli population and some important assets.
But the Iron Dome system is also not a perfect defense system, and the reason why it can intercept rockets fired from the Gaza Strip is because the rockets of Palestinian armed groups are relatively stretched. According to the survey, the most advanced rockets used by Palestinian armed groups are the rockets provided by Iran. There are two types of rockets developed by Iran itself and equipped with a large number of troops, namely the Fajir 3 and the Fagill 5, which are still usable in the Middle East, but there is still a gap compared with the mainstream rockets of military powers.
First of all, the Fajil 3 has a caliber of 240 mm, has 12 barrels, has a maximum range of 43 km, a firing speed of 4 to 8 seconds per round, and is loaded with rockets 5 meters long and weighing 407 kg, and the warhead of this rocket is 90 kg. The Fajil 5 has a caliber of 333 mm, is equipped with only 4 rocket launch tubes, has a maximum range of 75 kilometers, and the launch speed is still 4 to 8 seconds per round, and the reloadable rocket artillery is 6.5 meters long, weighs 915 kilograms, and the warhead is 175 kilograms. From the perspective of range, these two rockets can only be regarded as short- and medium-range rockets, but even if they are short- and medium-range rockets, Iran will not help a lot, after all, this is standard equipment, and the cost of use is considerable.
Therefore, the most used by Palestinian armed groups is not the above two rockets, it is understood that the most used by Palestinian armed groups is a rocket launcher called A120, with a range of about 120 kilometers. You know, rockets are originally covered strike weapons, the accuracy is low, and the Palestinian armed groups develop their own rocket artillery strike accuracy, that is not to mention
Although more than 100 rockets were fired at Israel this time, only 46 crossed the border, and only 33 of these 46 rockets were intercepted by the "Iron Dome" system, that is to say, the interception probability of the "Iron Dome" system was only about 70%, and this interception was the rocket launcher developed by the Palestinian armed groups.
First of all, the Haimas rocket is equipped with 6 launch tubes, the maximum range reaches 300 kilometers, the rate of fire is 8 seconds per round, a salvo can be completed within 40 seconds, the ammunition can be loaded within eight minutes, and the 227 mm caliber rockets can be loaded with different types of rockets, such as arson bombs, white phosphorus bombs, armor-piercing shells and cloud burst bombs. Not only that, the Hemas rocket is very mobile, can complete the combat preparation in 15 minutes, and can also run after fighting, without worrying about being destroyed by enemy precision missiles. If a rocket artillery company of 9 Haimas rockets completes a salvo, it will fire 54 rockets in about 40 seconds, and can be reloaded in eight minutes before firing another salvo.
Not only that, the accuracy of the Haimas rocket is also very high, and it will not be like the rocket artillery of the Palestinian armed organization, and it does not know where to fly. The Hemas rocket artillery also relies on the characteristics of long range, high accuracy and high mobility on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield to give the Russian army a headache.
Therefore, Israel's Iron Dome system can deal with rockets against Palestinian armed groups, and if it faces The Hemas rockets, it can only be dry-eyed. However, Israel is not the only one defense system, there is also a "David Slingshot" defense system specifically for intercepting medium-range rockets and an "arrow" anti-missile system for intercepting long-range rockets, including long-range missiles. Therefore, there is no absolute difference between the strength and weakness of any weapon, and if there is a spear, there is a shield.