JINSA Visiting Fellow Gabriel Scheinmann Quoted in Aerospace America, 4/2/2013
The Road to Iron Dome
by Marc Selinger
Contributing writer
When Israel’s Iron Dome successfully shot down hundreds of short-range artillery rockets launched from the Gaza Strip in November 2012, the system suddenly became the newest darling of the defense acquisition world.
Israeli technical expertise and U.S. financial backing had combined to produce a mobile network of interceptors, sensors, and command centers credited with sav- ing lives on both sides of the conflict.
The Road to Iron Dome
by Marc Selinger
Contributing writer
When Israel’s Iron Dome successfully shot down hundreds of short-range artillery rockets launched from the Gaza Strip in November 2012, the system suddenly became the newest darling of the defense acquisition world.
Israeli technical expertise and U.S. financial backing had combined to produce a mobile network of interceptors, sensors, and command centers credited with sav- ing lives on both sides of the conflict.
“No nation should have to live in fear of these kinds of attacks,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared at the Pentagon in late November during a joint press conference with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. “And that’s why I’m very proud that our two countries cooperated so closely to field the Iron Dome anti- rocket system. Iron Dome performed—I think it’s fair to say—remarkably well during the recent escalation. It intercepted more than 400 rockets bound for Israeli population centers, or a roughly 85% success rate overall.”
Barak echoed that sentiment, saying, “Iron Dome really changed the landscape of the conflict and enabled us to act forcefully within a short timeframe, trying tohit the target that should be hit, but minimize the damage to civilians on the other side, while our population…is continuously shelled by rockets and missiles from the Gaza Strip.”