On Saturday, Iran launched more than 200 drones and cruise missiles toward Israel. As the drone crisscrossed the Middle East on its way to its target, Israel activated a number of defense systems to stop the drone's progress. Nothing is more important than the Iron Dome.
Iron Dome, which has been in operation for more than a decade, is comprised of at least 10 missile defense squadrons strategically located across the country. When the radar detects an incoming object, it sends the information back to the command and control center. The command and control center tracks the threat and assesses whether it is a false alarm and, if not, where the attack will hit. The system then fires an interceptor missile at the incoming rocket that is most likely to hit a residential area.
“The whole process is designed to protect against low-flying, fast-moving missiles,” said Ian Boyd, director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado. This makes them extremely well-prepared for the onslaught of drones. “Drones will probably fly slower than these rockets,” Boyd said. “So in some ways it's an easier threat to deal with.”
Things get even more complicated when a drone flies too low to be detected by radar. However, the biggest challenge may be the sheer volume. Israel has hundreds of interceptor missiles at its disposal, but Iron Dome could still be overrun, as it was on October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel with thousands of missiles.
U.S. officials have announced that Iran has launched a total of 150 missiles toward Israel. Iron Dome has already been effective in deflecting attacks, with a 10-year-old boy reportedly injured by fragments from an intercepted missile.
Iron Dome is Israel's last, and perhaps best, line of defense, but it is not the only element. The drone in question is likely the Iranian-made Shahed-136, which played a key role in Russia's war against Ukraine. These so-called suicide drones (containing warheads and designed to hit targets) are relatively cheap to manufacture.
“On some level, it's not hard to take them down. They're not stealthy, they don't fly very fast, they're not maneuverable,” said David Oshmanek, a senior defense analyst at the nonprofit RAND Corporation. . “In a way, they're like airborne targets.”
In particular, their slow speeds and fixed flight paths mean that unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) must travel for several hours before reaching their destination, leaving ample opportunity for interception. Masu.
“There are a lot of warning signs in front of the UAS, so there's probably going to be a lot of fixed-wing manned aircraft monitoring these things, tracking them, and maybe trying to engage these things,” Tom says. Karako is director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
Part of that work falls to the US military, which has confirmed that it has shot down an unspecified number of Iranian drones and plans to shoot down more. Britain announced it would support U.S. aircraft diverted from existing missions and also intercept unmanned aircraft.