Last April, the Israeli army used for the first time a naval anti-missile shield based on the “Iron Dome” system to shoot down a drone launched from the Red Sea and heading towards the port city of Eilat.
It is one of the most sophisticated anti-missile systems in the world, which since 2011 has protected Israeli skies from short-range rockets, planes and other missiles – launched at a distance of 4 to 70 kilometers – and which, at over the last decade, has managed to neutralize more than 2,500 enemy projectileswith a success rate greater than 90%.
Iron Dome is not actually a shield, but rather a system made up of ten batteries strategically placed in various parts of the country. Each battery consists of three or four launchers, 20 Tamir missiles and a battlefield radar.
How much does the Israeli anti-missile shield cost?
But how much did this sophisticated protection system cost the Netanyahu government? According to a military expert consulted by this newspaper, each unit of Tami missile costs between 35000 and 50,000 dollars. Furthermore, it must be taken into account that, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)a complete Iron Dome battery cost approximately $100 million to produce.
In fact, before the system was operational, Iron Dome was a military method widely criticized for its high operating cost, as the cost of manufacturing a Qassam rocket – the rocket used by Palestinian forces – is a few 800 dollarswhile the manufacture and launch of a Tamir interceptor missile costs sixty times more than those of its enemies.
THE high costsin the view of critics, would pose an economic problem for Israel if large numbers of enemy rockets were launched. However, the company that made the Iron Dome, Rafael advanced defense systemsmaintains that this system aims only to intercept rockets that pose a real threat.
