November 5, 2024: Israel has been under attack by rockets and missiles since the nation was founded in 1948. So far Israel has had to deal with 19 wars with its Arab neighbors Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. After 1979 Iran went from ally and trading partner to the principal enemy of the new religious dictatorship that has misruled the former Israeli friend. Iranian efforts to destroy Israel have led to a series of Iranian failures. The latest one is the October 1 ^st missile attack on Israel that employed over 200 missiles. Israel intercepted nearly all of them and the few that got through caused little damage and only one fatality, a Palestinian man killed by a large component so an intercepted Iranian missile. Israel had some help from three American destroyers off the coast using their anti-aircraft weapons. There was also an attack from Yemen, where the Yemeni Houthi rebels, who are supplied with Iranian weapons, fired drones at Tel Aviv and Ashkelon. Some of these were intercepted by American destroyers off the Yemen coast.

In July a Houthi drone hit Tel Aviv and killed one Israeli and wounded four others. In response an Israeli air strike against the Yemen port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded over 70 people. This attacks did extensive damage to the port and surrounding areas. The U.S. Navy also launched cruise missiles at Houthi targets in Yemen. On October 16^th American B-2 bombers attacked Houthi targets outside the Yemen capital of Sanaa . This was in response to a September attack when over 30 Houthi missile and drones attacked three American destroyers in the Red Sea. The ships intercepted all the incoming missiles and drones.

Then there is Hamas, an associate but not an ally of Iran, and Hezbollah which is an ally and client of Iran. Earlier this year Israel used exploding pagers and portable radios, plus airstrikes, to decapitate Hezbollah’s leadership. Israel also killed several senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders including the elusive Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas supreme leader and one of its founders. Sinwar was moving about in Gaza when he and some aides were confronted by some Israeli soldiers. There was a brief gunbattle and the Israelis discovered that one of the dead men was the elusive Yahya Sinwar. Within a day, DNA tests confirmed that Sinwar was dead. His death was a catastrophe for Hamas which had recently suffered the loss of several leaders. Sinwar had spent two years planning and organizing the October 2023 Hamas offensive in Gaza that left over a thousand Israeli dead. This was the largest number of Israelis ever killed in one day, let alone one action. With Sinwar gone, several lesser Hamas leaders are feuding with each other to determine who will replace their departed leader. You can’t replace someone like Sinwar and his aides who are finding that out as their succession disputes leave Hamas paralyzed and starting to fall apart.

Now virtually leaderless, Palestinians are unsure of what the future will bring. Most Palestinians live in or immediately adjacent to Israel. Two million of Israel’s 9.8 million population are Palestinians. The Gaza Strip contains 365 square kilometers of territory and 2.1 million Palestinians. The West Bank contains 5,655 square kilometers and 4.1 million Palestinians. Gaza has had many rulers over the last century. A century ago Gaza was administered by British officials and occupied by British troops. After 1945 Gaza was ruled by Egyptian officials. In 1956 a war between several Arab states and Israel was won by the Israelis, who also captured Gaza but then withdrew. The 1967 Arab Israeli war saw Gaza once more captured by the Israelis and administered by them until 2005 when, after an 11 year process, Israeli forces withdrew and a local Palestinian government, initially Al Fatah, which also ruled the West Bank, took over Gaza.

While some Arab groups, and Iran, developed an intense hatred for Israel, the Israelis created the most affluent and technologically advanced state in the region. Eventually neighboring Arab nations realized that it was much better to have Israel as a trading partner rather than the target of many attacks that always failed and earned the attackers heavy losses.

One of the major defensive systems Israel developed was Iron Dome. This system has, for over a decade, been the principal weapon that kept Israel safe from missile and drone attacks.

Iron Dome missile launchers hold 20 Tamir missiles. Each 160mm diameter Tamir weighs 90 kg and is three meters long. Tamir’s guidance system has a radar and a proximity fuze which detects the size and speed of a nearby target and detonates the warhead only if the right type of target like drone, cruise missile or rocket is detected. Because of recently added features for destroying cruise missiles and drones, the cost per Tamir missile went from $50,000 to nearly $150,000.

In 2020 Tamir proved its ability to down cruise missiles and drones using the Iron Dome radar and fire control system. In that test Iron Dome systems on land and Israeli ships were integrated into a multi-layer air defense system that included David’s Sling, which is similar to the American Patriot, and Israel’s own Arrow ABM (anti-ballistic missile system). Iron Dome can use other air defense search, fire control and target management systems. With that Israel began offering the Tamir missiles and launchers to export customers.

Continuous Israeli upgrades of Iron Dome enabled it to shoot down various types of drones. This required some software modifications and was done at the request of the U.S. Army. Iron Dome was already capable of shooting down aircraft and helicopters. The drones were often much smaller, but so are the rockets and mortar shells Iron Dome can knock down. The United States has contributed over a billion dollars to development and procurement of Iron Dome. Periodically adding new features like this helps export sales.

Israel initially designed Iron Dome to only defend stationary targets. By 2014 Israel had fifteen batteries of Iron Dome and over 2,000 Tamir missiles. That was enough to shut down a Hamas effort to hit Israel with thousands of rockets. Each battery has radar, fire control equipment, and 3-4 missile launchers each with 20 missiles) and cost about $37-50 million for the basic, no anti-aircraft capability model, and depending on how many missiles it is shipped with. With the new system, a battery with two radars and three launchers costs about $100 million and can protect an area of about 150 square kilometers.

In 2014 the U.S. Army purchased an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery from Israel, mainly to determine if Iron Dome would be worth getting for deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan where American troops were still stationed. This American purchase was the first export sale of Iron Dome. The U.S. bought two more batteries in 2020 and 2021. Israeli efforts to export their Iron Dome anti-rocket system were slow initially but eventually succeeded with Azerbaijan, India and several other counters placing orders. The Israeli manufacturer of Iron Dome thought this would make Iron Dome a hot export item. After all, Israel is one of the top ten weapons exporters in the world. This is because the Israeli system works well and is usually combat tested. Although the Iron Dome system had succeeded in shooting down about 85 percent of the rockets headed for Israeli populated areas, that was a unique situation.

Continued success eventually made Iron Dome exportable, especially after the anti-aircraft, drone and cruise missile capabilities were added. The U.S. was willing to buy more Iron Dome systems but wanted access to the fire control source code. Israel refused because American security is less strict than Israel’s and a leak of that source code would enable an enemy to determine exploitable weaknesses in Iron Dome. This software dispute was eventually resolved.

The main problem is that Iron Dome was designed to deal with an enemy that is a terrorist organization like Hamas operating out of an area like Gaza that is basically home for Palestinian refugees who have been there for over 60 years. Hamas wants nothing less than the destruction of Israel. Hezbollah, a similar organization, controls southern Lebanon and is also dedicated to the destruction of Israel, using 100,000 – 150,000 unguided rockets and guided missiles it received from Iran. This is the unique situation that Iron Dome was designed to deal with. When faced with a massive launch of rockets at once, Iron Dome is unable to shoot down all of those headed for populated areas. While the intercept rate is lower, Iron Dome has shown it can still reduce Israeli casualties and property damage. Iron Dome recently added a high-powered laser device that can knock down many rockets but at shorter ranges.