Iron Dome is well-known today in the world of warfare as an air defense system that is completely portable and functional in any weather condition.
It was created as a collaboration of the Israel Aerospace Industries and the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
The primary goal of Iron Dome is to intercept and terminate rockets deployed from anywhere within 4 to 70 kilometers away that are targeted towards Israeli territory. The system is also capable of intercepting artillery shells.
The Introduction of Iron Dome
It was in March 2011 when Iron Dome was officially used in the vicinity of Beersheba. Just a little more than a week after it was launched, the system proved its effectiveness by successfully intercepting for the first time a BM-21 Grad rocket launcher that originated in Gaza.
A year after it was launched, Iron Dome has already stopped more than 90% of rockets and missiles from Gaza that were meant to detonate in heavily populated Israeli territories.
Future Developments of Iron Dome
Despite its massive success, the makers of Iron Dome admit that there are still a lot of areas for improvement in the system. Because of this, they are set on further increasing the capacity of its interceptions by expanding its maximum range from 70 kilometers to a staggering 250 kilometers.
Also, the current Iron Dome is only capable of single direction interception. A more versatile version is already in the works where the system will be able to stop rockets or missiles from two different directions at the same time.
Foreign Use of Iron Dome Systems
Although it was created originally for Israeli defense, many foreign governments have already purchased this system for their own military defense like Azerbaijan, India, Romania and the United States. Other countries that are considering making a purchase are South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
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