Israel has a long history of creating very efficient, state-of-the-art protection systems and capabilities due to its particular national security difficulties. The Iron Dome air defense system, which has been hailed as the best defense against weapons and missiles in the world, is a perfect example of Jewish military power.
But, Israel was taken by surprise on October 7, 2023, when the Gaza-based Palestinian militant organization Hamas launched a very large-scale weapon attack. According to reports, the team launched many thousand weapons at a number of targets all over Israel.
It is obvious that a sizable portion of the Hamas weapons penetrated the Jewish threats, causing significant damage and casualties, though precise details are unknown.
I study room and security systems as an aerospace engineer. The Jewish defense strategy against the Hamas attack was not entirely successful for a straightforward purpose. You must first comprehend the fundamentals of air defense systems in order to comprehend why.
Heat defense: identify, choose, and remove
An air security program is made up of three main parts. Radars are used first to find, record, and find incoming missiles. These scanners have a variety of ranges. According to Raytheon, the manufacturer of the Iron Dome, its radar is powerful over distances of 2.5 to 43.5 kilometers( 4 to 70 kilometers ).
Once an item has been picked up by the sensor, it needs to be evaluated to see if it poses a threat. This decision is made using data like speed and direction.
Iron Dome providers continue to track an image by detector if it is determined to be a danger. Although missile speeds vary greatly, the defense system can only respond to an attack for one minute, assuming a representative speed of 3, 280 feet per second( 3 km / s ).
The war command centre is the next crucial component of an air defense system. This element establishes the best course of action to take in response to a confirmed risk. The best answer in terms of where to flame interceptor missiles and how many to start against an incoming missile is determined using the constantly changing radar information.
The fighter weapon itself makes up the third significant part. It is a hypersonic missile with heat-seeking detectors for the Iron Dome. These sensors give the fighter in-flight updates, enabling it to navigate in that direction and get closer to the danger.
In order to prevent the incoming missile from having to hit it straight to remove it, the interceptor uses a proximity fuse activated by tiny radar to burst near to it.
weapon defenses’ limitations
Each of Israel’s at least ten Iron Dome batteries, which are equipped with 60 to 80 fighter weapons, is in use. Each of those weapons costs around$ 60,000 USD. Iron Dome was 90 % effective against a variety of challenges in earlier problems involving fewer weapons and missiles.
Why then did the system perform less well in the current Hamas problems?
It is merely a matter of statistics. Israel had less than a thousand ships on the area ready to counter Hamas’ many thousand weapons. Actually if Iron Dome was completely successful against the coming challenges, some of the Hamas-launched missiles were still going to make it through.
The Hamas assaults make it abundantly clear that if there are too many threats to overcome, perhaps the best air defense systems can become overwhelmed.
The Jewish missile defence has been developed over a long period of time with significant financial investment. Hamas couldn’t possibly manage to overpower it. Once more, it all comes down to statistics.
Hamas’ missiles are around 100 times less expensive than the Iron Dome ships because they cost approximately$ 600 each. Israel spent about$ 48 million in total to fire all of its ships. The price would only be$ 3 million if Hamas fired 5, 000 rockets.
As a result, Hamas carefully planned and carried out its method, building up an enormous number of reasonably priced missiles over time that it knew would destroy the Iron Dome’s defenses.
However for Israel, the Hamas attack serves as a very glaring illustration of military inadequacy: an inexpensive, ineffective strategy was able to fight an expensive, high-tech system.
air defense systems in the future
The Hamas strike will have an impact on all of the main military powers in the world. It amply demonstrates the requirement for air defense systems that are much more efficient in two crucial way.
First, a little larger armoury of defensive weapons that can deal with numerous missile threats is required. Secondly, it is necessary to significantly lower the price per defensive weapons.
This incident is likely to hasten the creation and application of directed strength air defense systems based on powerful radiation and high-energy beams. Due to their relatively low cost per picture fired and ability to continue firing for as long as they are powered by electricity, these devices are often referred to as having an” eternal publication.”
Iain Boyd is the chairman of the National Security Initiatives Center and a professor of aviation engineering sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Under a Creative Commons license, this article is republished from The Conversation. Read the original publication.