© Reuters/Baz RatnerAn Iron Dome launcher fires an interceptor rocket in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, July 8, 2014.
The radar-guided Iron Dome missile, meant to intercept and smash incoming rockets in the seconds before they strike their targets, works just a small fraction of the time, according to a detailed analysis carried out by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The study was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Ploughshares Fund.
Ted Postol, a physicist at the university and an expert in missiles and missile defenses, has found evidence that only about 5 percent of Iron Dome engagements result in the targeted rocket being destroyed or even sufficiently damaged to disable its explosive warhead. In the other 95 percent of cases, the interceptor either misses entirely or just lightly damages the enemy munition, allowing the rocket's intact warhead to continue arcing toward the ground.
Postol based his conclusion on a careful analysis of amateur videos and photos of Iron Dome interceptions over the past three years. He admitted that most of his data is from a previous round of fighting in 2012. "The data we have collected so far [for 2014], however, indicate the performance of Iron Dome has not markedly improved," Postol wrote on the website of the nonprofit Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Comment: The fact that Palestinian rockets haven't killed many Israelis is also due in large part that they are crude garden shed projectiles fueled by sugar and fertilizer. If the 'rockets' were as threatening as Israel says, you can be sure we would be seeing the results in the media. Instead, Israelis are cheering atop parked cars as Palestinians are being slaughtered.