This is David Sling missile.The interceptor is a two-stage missile, with two targeting and guidance systems installed in its nose-tip (a radar and an electro-optic sensor).
Posted on 01/17/2010 8:32:19 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Despite all the media fanfare and ballyhoo about the impending deployment of another missile-defense system, Israeli commentators are warning that the Jewish state's much-vaunted defense shield has a few chinks in it. The Defense Ministry announced on Jan. 7 that Iron Dome, which is designed to shoot down short-range missiles and mortar shells, had sailed through a series of test-firings with flying colors.
The first operational battery would soon be deployed on the southern front against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to counter rockets fired by the Palestinian militants.
Iron Dome is intended to be the bottom layer in a missile defense shield, with the U.S.-financed long-range, high-altitude Arrow II interceptor, first deployed in 2001, to take care of ballistic missiles, and the David's Sling system, still at least two years away from deployment, designed to counter intermediate-range missiles.
But Rueven Pedatzur of the liberal daily Haaretz opened up with a barrage of criticism that appeared to shoot a few holes in the official line that Israelis could rest assured that they were fully protected from hostile missiles.
Iron Dome, which cost Rafael Advanced Defense Industries $200 million to develop "has brought nothing to the table," he wrote on Wednesday, "and it has not solved the inherent problems of a defense system based on missiles trying to intercept enemy rockets Â…
"The rejoicing and the preening in the wake of the (Iron Dome) test's success hide the far bleaker truth.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacewar.com ...
Um hmmmm, sure it is.....
Haaretz leans to the left and somewhat away from Israel. Space War is a Sydney, Australia publication.
Israel isn’t going to tell everything that Iron Dome can do.
Hate to break it, but no missile shield is going to be 100% foolproof, don’t care who makes or employs it.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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I'm not sure cost is a flaw. The author seems to think that in a future, sustained attack, Israel will just sit there and let the defensive batteries do their thing. In that case the strategy would be flawed. I suspect Israel will eliminate the threat on the ground, in Gaza and Lebanon.
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