Posted on 11/20/2012 12:21:09 PM PST by lbryce
JERUSALEM An abiding image of the former Israel defense minister Amir Peretz was a photograph of him peering at a military drill with the black lens caps still on his binoculars. Mr. Peretz resigned months after the 2006 war in Lebanon, which was widely regarded as a failure.
Yet on Sunday, as rockets fired by Gaza militants streaked toward Tel Aviv, Ashdod and other Israeli cities, Mr. Peretz, a resident of the rocket-battered border town of Sderot, was being hailed as a defense visionary for having had the foresight while in office to face down myriad skeptics and push for the development of Iron Dome, Israels unique anti-rocket interceptor system.
The naysayers now are few. In the five days since Israel began its fierce assault on the militant infrastructure in Hamas-run Gaza, after years of rocket fire against southern Israel, Iron Dome has successfully intercepted more than 300 rockets fired at densely populated areas, with a success rate of 80 to 90 percent, top officials said. Developed with significant American financing and undergoing its ultimate battle test, the Iron Dome system has saved many lives, protected property and proved to be a strategic game changer, experts said.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak toured a newly deployed mobile unit near Tel Aviv on Sunday and described Iron Dome as probably the most technologically impressive achievement in recent years in Israel. He called its performance almost perfect.
By preventing mass casualties, experts said, Israels leaders have retained public support for the continuing operation and have had more time to weigh a possible ground incursion.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A shield of this kind was the idea behind President Reagan's Star Wars Missile defense shield. The major drawback was that it had to be 100% effective. If one ever got through, it wouldn't fall to the Earth with the sort of relatively minor damage of a Hamas missile but with a nuclear detonation.
But “Star-Wars” will NEVER work! G^& DAMN I HATE DEMS and RINOS!
I’m waiting, and will probably be waiting a long time, for just one liberal to apologize for ridiculing missile defense.
> The major drawback was that it had to be 100% effective.
Not true. The United States would survive if we lost 100 cities to nuclear war or to hurricanes.
The United States survived after half the states voted to secede, and Lincoln sent men and boys to their deaths to bring the seceding half of the country back.
And the effectiveness of a military system is measured not only by what it does in hot battle, but what it frightens the enemy to do and not do in actions short of hot war.
The Strategic Defense System only had to be effective enough to convince Soviet planners that it would be too costly for them to engage us in a nuclear strike.
What is killing me are these libs talking about a non-proportional response. Where is it written other than TV commentators imagination the a response should be proportional to the aggression?
What better deterrent is there than them knowing that the response will be orders of magnitude worse than any aggression those numb nuts will try?
Senator Kennedy, is that you ?
Yes, you are correct. I apologize for my misstatement. My focus was narrowed on the damage caused, catastrophic enough, but in a nuclear exchange, one missile out of thousands would be an overwhelming success.
Raw: Israel Shoots Down Tel Aviv-bound Rocket
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpXGTi3kv4
Unbelievable - Grad rocket hits near an Israeli man in Ashkelon, Israel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7h5mfIyC6o
The Sound of Terror: 6 Rockets From Gaza Strike Ashdod
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-wETUOJDmc&feature=related
This may be Iran's intention: just wear them down, emotionally and financially.
You're out of your damn mind. The 101st largest city in the US is Boise, Idaho. Losing every larger city to nuclear holocaust would return whatever survivors there were to the stone age.
Would people survive the blasts and the fall out? Possibly although that's far from certain. Would the country? Not in any meaningful sense.
One missile getting through out of a thousand is catastrophic. But you are still able to respond and take your enemy back to the stone age, and he knows it, and he factors that into his strategic thinking. And maybe decides not to risk it.
A thousand missiles out of a thousand getting through renders you unable to respond, and your enemy knows it and factors that in, too.
Besides, most conflicts aren’t going to involve a thousand nuclear missiles, as we are seeing. A dozen Scuds aimed at your massing troops, and if you can get most of them, your army survives and the operation continues. Or a hundred missiles aimed at an Israeli neighborhood and you get most of them and the wives and kids stay alive while Dad’s reserve unit goes in to get the monsters who did it.
It will change the way a nuclear attack is launched, though. Instead of a ballistic missile, you use a freighter loaded with shipping containers. Let a radical third party do the dirty work and take the blame.
I fantasize about loading a C-130 or larger cargo aircraft with 3/8’ pea-rock and unloading same over the towns in Gaza from 25,000 feet!
I’m definitely not a pilot but would a sharp and steady climb from 25K to 30K empty the cargo?
Cheap raindrops!
Palletize it with a drogue chute to open the bundles and you could easily empty a C-130 in 5k feet of climb, or do a sharp 3000 FPM climb for 500 feet and dump it all in one spot.
Are there rocket factories in Gaza, or are they all being imported from Iran?
Please see post #4
Patriot, THAAD, and MEADS along with Standard 6 will make a pretty impressive shield against any attack, or at least add enough uncertainty to a Russian or Chinese attack that it would not be worth the risk. That is if it ever gets funded to that point, which is doubtful with Mr. “Flexibility” in the Whitehouse.
Don’t think the Russians aren’t developing the same capability. The S-400 being deployed now around Moscow and soon the S-500 will be considerable in capability against our deterrent force.
I think one inch rocks would have better terminal velocity. The load-master would probably prefer the load be containerized, and the container rolled out the back, so as to not mess up the inside of the plane.
And you can bet your boots that Iran, the Russians and others are watching closely and taking careful notes.
They will go with MIRVs next time.
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