Iron Dome

Grey Havoc said:
A bit of good news:
www.defensenews.com

House passes $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome system in blowout vote

The House passed legislation overwhelmingly to provide $1 billion to Israel to restock its Iron Dome short-range missile defense system just days after Democrats removed the funding from a broad stopgap spending bill.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com
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I read somewhere that they only cost $40k each. Has Israel really used 25,000 of them, or is this cost BS? Officially the Israeli government hasn't released any price and I can't believe they cost 1/10th or 1/20th the price of an AIM-9. Seems like there a '0' missing or something.

Iron Dome - Air Force Magazine

Israel’s defensive system brings strategic and psychological protection from rocket attacks.
www.airforcemag.com www.airforcemag.com
 
Forest Green said:
I can't believe they cost 1/10th or 1/20th the price of an AIM-9
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Think of the cost of their targets: Katyushas, not fighters.
Cost has to be low enough to be able to defend against saturation attacks like Hamas tried time and again.
 
dan_inbox said:
Think of the cost of their targets: Katyushas, not fighters.
Cost has to be low enough to be able to defend against saturation attacks like Hamas tried time and again.
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That doesn't explain how the cost got that low when even MANPADS missiles like Stinger cost $120k and AIM-9Xs (passive seekers) cost $400k. It also doesn't explain why the cost of restocking missiles is $1bn (that would be 25,000 missiles at $40k). Unless $40k is just the portion of the cost per missile that Israel pays itself or something.
 
Maybe Tamir have no real seeker but only autopilot with uplink and proximity fuze. All heavy lifting is done by radar that put missile on collision course and activate proximity fuze, self destruct mechanism and that’s it. Please remember that potential targets are not very demanding so Tamir can be quite slow.
 
Hanz2k said:
Maybe Tamir have no real seeker but only autopilot with uplink and proximity fuze. All heavy lifting is done by radar that put missile on collision course and activate proximity fuze, self destruct mechanism and that’s it. Please remember that potential targets are not very demanding so Tamir can be quite slow.
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Not according to Rafael.

1657270376063.png

The contributions from 2011 to 2021 were $1.6bn, and it seems 400 intercepts are made per year roughly, so I know it's an extrapolation but that's 4000 in 10 years, which required a $1bn restock, assuming they replaced all of them, or they used $1.6bn assuming them used all original missiles. So that's $250-400k per missile.

en.wikipedia.org

Iron Dome - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Iron Dome (Hebrew: כִּפַּת בַּרְזֶל, romanized: Kippat Barzel) is a mobile all-weather air defense system[8] developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries.[7] The system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) to 70 kilometres (43 mi) away and whose trajectory would take them to an Israeli populated area.[9][10] From 2011 to 2021, the United States contributed a total of US$ 1.6 billion to the Iron Dome defense system,[11] with another US$ 1 billion approved by the US Congress in 2022.[12]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome#cite_note-reuters16Nov2012-15
In November 2012, official statements indicated that it had intercepted over 400 rockets.[16][17] By late October 2014, the Iron Dome systems had intercepted over 1,200 rockets.[18]
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Defense-Aerospace October 29 article " Is Israel's Iron Dome Missile Defense System Ironclad?"

On Oct. 7 alone, the first day of fighting, Hamas launched at least 2,000 rockets (7,000 total at time of article) // Most of the rockets have been intercepted. But some have managed to get through, killing at least 11 people and hitting buildings as far away as Tel Aviv.
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One interesting quote "The military declined to comment on how many Iron Dome batteries are currently deployed. But as of 2021, Israel had 10 batteries scattered around the country, each able to defend a territory of 60 square miles (155 square kilometers), according to Raytheon."
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If my maths correct would that make the max range of the Iron Dome 3 m long, 160 mm dia, 90 kg Tamir missile 4.4 miles / 7 km, assuming the 60 square miles (155 square kilometers) center of a circle?

https://www.defense-aerospace.com/is-israels-iron-dome-missile-defense-system-ironclad/
 

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