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The $200 million “Iron Dome” performed beyond all expectations for military.
JERUSALEM — A new Israeli-made missile defense system has gotten off to an encouraging start, shooting down at least eight rockets in a test run that could potentially change the long-running war between Israel and Palestinian rocket squads in Gaza.
Israeli officials say the $200 million “Iron Dome” has performed beyond all expectations, raising hopes the military has finally found a way to rob Hamas militants of their most potent weapon: the short-range rockets that have made life miserable for large swaths of the population over the past decade.
The repeated successes have raised spirits in Israel’s embattled southern region, prompted a congratulatory visit to an Iron Dome battery on Sunday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and fueled calls, perhaps unrealistic, that the system be deployed nationwide. Experts say Iron Dome is the first system in the world capable of knocking down rudimentary rockets favored by militants around the globe.
Yet officials and analysts warn the excitement may be premature, noting the system is in its infancy and that armed groups in Gaza possess plenty of other formidable weapons.
“We will not be able to protect every house, every installation, every site in the state of Israel,” Netanyahu acknowledged, even as he hailed the Iron Dome as a “most impressive technological achievement.”
Iron Dome is a key element of what Israel refers to as its “multi-layer” missile defense shield, a series of systems meant to defend the country from everything from medium-range missiles that could be launched from Iran, hundreds of miles away, down to the short-range projectiles possessed by enemies on its northern and southern borders. These primitive rockets, which fly just a few miles and are in the air for just seconds, have eluded Israel’s high-tech military for years.
With the system in use for just a few days, it is far too early to declare it an unabashed success. Two decades ago, Israel used the American-made Patriot missiles to shoot down incoming Scuds fired by Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.