As many as more than 1,000 rockets have reportedly launched from the Gaza area to Israel since Monday (10/5) until now, but most of them did not reach their targets because they were prevented by Israeli air defenses, one of which is known as the Iron Dome.
Iron Dome is an Israeli ground-based air defense system. Its function is to intervene in specially developed short-range rockets and artillery based on potential attacks on Israel from Palestinian territories and Lebanese areas controlled by Hezbollah.
Quoted from Missile Threat, this system contains three main elements, namely the ELM 2084 Multmission Radar (MMR), battle management and weapon control system (BMC), and a firing unit equipped with a Tamir interceptor rocket weapon.
Iron Dome, which has movable wheels, can detect rocket attacks from a distance of 4 to 70 kilometers, then launches a Tamir interceptor rocket that will destroy the attacking rockets in the air.
The Tamir interceptor rocket was 3 meters long, 0.16 meters in diameter, and weighed 90 kilograms. The Tamir, whose one unit is said to cost US $ 100 thousand (Rp1.4 billion), can cover a distance of up to 40 kilometers.
Iron Drome's action to drive rockets from Gaza to detonate them in the air was shown the Israel Defense Forces account on social media. Objects like fireballs with smoke tails collided with each other and made the sky reddish in color.
The price of one Iron Dome unit is estimated at US $ 100 million or around Rp1.4 trillion. One Irone Dome unit is said to be able to protect an area of 150 square kilometers.
Iron Dome has completed its final testing in July 2010 and was declared operational in 2011. Currently Iron Dome plays an important role in Israel's layered defense to protect against short-range missiles, mortars and rockets.
Iron Dome can tell the difference between a rocket that threatens a population area and one that is about to crash without being too dangerous. Iron Dome has repelled more than 1,500 targets between 2011 and April 2016.
During the conflict with Hamas, Israeli officials claimed that Iron Dome prevented 85 percent of the 400 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip that were predicted to be targeted at the civilian population.
Citing the Eurasian Times, Iron Dome was developed by Israel, but reports also say that the United States helped fund the development after it began operating in 2011.
Through this funding, the US finally has the production rights to Iron Dome. Israel has also opened a partnership with a US arms company called Raytheon to manufacture some Iron Dome components.
Reportedly about 55 percent of the components for the Iron Dome system are manufactured in the US.
Currently, Israel has 10 Iron Dome units, each consisting of three to four stationary launchers, 20 Tamir rockets and battlefield radars. Several countries in the Middle East or Arabia were reportedly interested in buying the Iron Dome.
The situation in the region is currently heating up after Israeli air strikes killed 32 Palestinians in Gaza, while so far retaliatory attacks have killed three Israelis. This is the heaviest attack between Israel and Hamas since the 2014 war in Gaza.
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