Mechanical Engineering

The Iron Dome

You must wondering what the hell is Iron Dome? In this article, you will learn about Iron Dome and its history.

Its Purpose

“Iron Dome” is a missile defense system developed by the Israeli Government which was prominently funded by the United States for protection against enemy missiles from Palestine seeking to annex Israel.

Its History

The reason why this “Iron Dome” exists is because of WW2. In 1948, the British formed the states of Israel and Palestine from the Mandate of British Palestine. They, at first, tried to get along, but they had growing nationalist movements against each other and they both wanted the same land. So tensions broke down into the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. After several wars involving the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians got tired and put their factories into overdrive creating missiles to launch into Israel to cause massive damage. The Israeli got tired of having to deal with Palestinian missiles destroying their land, and with help from the USA, they created Iron Dome in 2011.

The Iron Dome is a mobile air-defense system designed to use missiles to blow up enemy missiles mid-air. The Iron Dome is comprised of a battery, a radar, and a command/control center. The battery has 3 individual launches containing 20 interceptor missiles which intercept enemy missiles mid-air and blow them up meaning that they have 60 missiles total. The most impressive thing about the Iron Dome is its ability to track enemy missiles and see if they are to strike an urban area. If the Iron Dome detects that an enemy missile will strike a village or city only then will it activate and shoot down the enemy missile.

Up and Downsides of the Iron Dome

The upsides of the Iron Dome are that effectiveness of the Iron Dome is 85%-90% at shooting down enemy missiles, but the downsides of the Iron Dome are that it is insanely cost-inefficient as 1 interceptor missile costs $40000-$50000 or the same as your average new car. So, imagine getting a new car 60x times then firing it out of a cannon