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Darren Whiteside / Reuters
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man watches as a truck transports Iron Dome anti-missiles batteries in the southern city of Ashdod, November 17.
JERUSALEM - Israel's Iron Dome interceptions of rockets fired from Gaza during eight days of Gaza fighting cost $25 million to $30 million, the government said on Thursday, arguing the U.S.-backed system was well worth the money.
"Were Iron Dome traded on the (Tel Aviv) stock exchange or Nasdaq, it would have multiplied its share value several times over," Civil Defense Minister Avi Dichter told Israel Radio in an interview where he outlined the system's outlay.
Using radar-guided interceptor missiles, Israel's five truck-towed Iron Dome batteries shot down 421 of some 1,500 rockets launched from the Gaza Strip between November 14 and Wednesday's Egyptian-brokered truce, the military said.
How Israel's 'Iron Dome' intercepts incoming rockets
It put Iron Dome's success rate at 90 percent. To lower costs, the system engages only rockets that threaten populated areas, though it often fires two interceptor missiles at once.
The anti-missile system made in Israel and helped by American money, recognizes which rockets will hit an inhabited area and knocks them out while ignoring the others. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.
Rockets killed 5 people in Israel and wounded dozens during the conflict, police said. Three died in coastal Ashdod on a day when Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd, Iron Dome's state-owned manufacturer, said the system had suffered a malfunction.
Israel says it needs 13 batteries for satisfactory nationwide Defense. A Defense industry source put the unit cost for Israel at around $50 million.
The focus of Israel's aerial assault on Gaza were the stockpiles and launch silos of rockets imported or improvised by Hamas and other factions. Gaza medical officials said 162 Palestinians were killed, more than half of them civilians.
The most potent of those rockets were Iranian-designed Fajr-5s with 75 km (46 mile) ranges and 175 kg (385 lb) warheads, though Hamas also said it used a Gaza-made variant, "Qassam M-75".
Shops and stores are reopening and a semblance of normalcy is returning to Gaza's streets after a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas is put into effect. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Gaza.
Iran denies supplying arms to the Palestinians. But the Iranian Young Journalists Club website on Wednesday quoted the commander of the Islamic republic's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, saying the corps had "put the technology of Fajr-5 missiles at their (Gazans') disposal and right now a good number of these have been made and are available to them".
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Leave a Comment:
can't put a price on intercepting missiles fired at a civilian population
Its really time Israel runs over Gaza and the West bank.
That price is a great deal for the protection it offers everyone.
Why don't THEY pay it?
Before reading this article, the numbers I ran in my head were closer to $5B. Incredible.
Although the next version (forgot the name of the project I read somewhere) to intercept smarter guided missiles will be undoubtedly more costly.
@dave-sunny, why don't they pay it? Well, the answer is simple on this one - US access to technology we want.
BENJAMIN MILEIKOWSKY
Dear President Obama,
All people are chosen by the Father of All. Please believe that another $30 million dollars would be better spent, by relocating the people of Benjamin Mileikowsky to Cochise County, Arizona.
The U.S. desert would bloom and thrive, and at a much lower cost to U.S. taxpayers, than will be needed to fight future wars for a narrow strip of land, at the blood soaked end of the Mediterranean Sea.
End the Palestinina Holocaust. All of Planet Earth is Holy.
We extend our hands to welcome the people of Benjamin Mileikowsky
Unit cost of 50 Million. hard to believe but if true cheap for military hardware. Lockheed Martin where are you?
Then again they wouldn't be the ones paying for it. They will be knocking at the US tax payer's door to pay for it.
So far the US has carried the financial burden for Israels military hardware in addition to the 30 Billion+ a year "gift" from the US tax payer
The Nag Hammadi Library
END THE PALESTINIAN HOLOCAUST
There is no Palestinian Holocaust.
Any Palestinians who died in this war would be still alive if their leaders had not chosen to attack Israel.
I don't know in what universe shooting down less than 500 rockets out of 1500 fired is a 90% success rate but it sure in hell isn't mine.
Prolly in the universe of people who bother to read the entire article... It shot down 90% of the rockets that were going to civilian areas. The 1,500 rockets is the total fired nto isreal, I guess 500~ of them were actually a threat to civilain populations.
Maybe you should actually read the article before you make yourself look stupid...they only shoot at ones aimed at populated zones...thus the success rate of 90%
"Using radar-guided interceptor missiles, Israel's five truck-towed Iron Dome batteries shot down 421 of some 1,500 rockets launched from the Gaza Strip ..."
"It put Iron Dome's success rate at 90 percent. To lower costs, the system engages only rockets that threaten populated areas, though it often fires two interceptor missiles at once."
Inferred from the above, the Palestinians fired 468 rockets into populated areas. The Iron Dome responded with a 90 per cent success rate by scoring 421 hits, and missed the remaining 47 rockets which caused the carnage in Israel. Assuming the Iron Dome fired two missiles for every threatening rocket, the financial cost of this success was $37.4 million (468 x 2 missiles @ $40,000 per missile).
The remaining approximate 1032 rockets fired by the Palestinians were ignored by the Iron Dome because they landed in unpopulated areas. The financial saving of ignoring these rockets was $82.6 million (1032 pairs @ $40,000 per missile).
This is my understanding of the situation.
What is not clear however, is the success rate of each pair of missiles. If one missile scores a hit while the other fails, the success rate is 50% per pair, and this means the overall success rate is not 90%, but 50% of 90%. This equates to an Iron Dome success rate of only 45%. Such a low figure must be worrying to the Israeli military, and this is probably why missiles are fired in pairs.
How much of the 30 million is Israel paying out of its own pocket?
Israel has paid in blood of their people.
Israel is paying nothing. It's the US that pay's everything!!!!
No, the US doesn't pay a single cent for the missiles launched by the Iron Dome.
The US in the past helped finance part the DEVELOPMENT of the system, but doesn't pay for its operation or for launched missiles. And, don't worry, the US will get its fair share back with the upcoming arms deals.
Hamas should be made to recompense Israel for each and every dime it had to spend using this system to shoot down their terrorist rockets.
The Iron Dome sounds a bit like the Star Wars missile defense system that was proposed back in the Reagan administration but never really went anywhere. It does indeed look as though Israel has the tech down to have actual working models of missile defense. For all the money that the US has spent on military and defense spending for the past few decades , shouldn't we have a system just as good if not better than that of Israel's in place by now. And if not ,WHY NOT????
Iron Dome was develop in cooperation with the US.
So assume that the US payed the main share of it. Again Lockheed Martin where are you with your 150 million JSF-35 a piece?
Conceptually Iron Dome and Reagan's Star Wars are the same type of system. Iron Dome is designed to counter slow tactical rockets of limited range. Reagan's Star Wars was designed for the more difficult long range strategic missiles traveling at supersonic speeds. The US equivalent to Iron Dome is the MIM-104 Patriot.
Leave it to the Israeli's! That is cheaper than ONE (I said ONE) of the US's new fighter aircraft . . .
What a deal as opposed to Obama's $528 million loan to Solyndra
Or the aid to Egypt or Pakistan?
Those who complain about money going to Israel are usually at peace with the money going to Islamic states.
No foreign aid for nobody, problem solved.
we funded it originally and now we are funding the production. $500m committed so far - why? are the israelis broke or can they not resist american tit
I agree.We don't need to give them more money.We give enough.
Soon, they will also have no money like their American brothers, but they can't print monopoly money like the US can..