How Israel's 'Iron Dome' missile defence system works

 "We intercepted. We thwarted. Together we will win," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted following Iran's missile and drone attack on Saturday.

In what one official described as "the most complex air defence events recorded", Israel claims to have shot down 99% of the 330-plus drones, cruise and ballistic missiles fired from Iran.

While Israel was assisted by US, UK, French and Jordanian forces, the success of the operation was down in large part to the country's "Iron Dome" shield – the centrepiece of one of the "best anti-missile defences in the world", said Richard Kemp in The Telegraph.

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 What is the Iron Dome and how does it work?

The Iron Dome is a three-piece system of interceptor batteries that shoot short-range rockets, artillery shells and mortars out of the sky. A radar tracks the missile as it is fired at Israel, and then advanced software predicts the rocket's trajectory. The information is used to guide Tamir interceptor missiles, which are fired from the ground to blow the missile into pieces in the sky.

The air defence system was built by the Israeli state-owned company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in response to the war with Lebanon's Hezbollah in 2006, when 4,000 rockets rained down on northern Israel, killing 44 people. The Iron Dome was first used in March 2011 and made its first successful intervention the following month, when it intercepted a Grad rocket fired from Gaza.

Consisting of a series of truck-towed mobile units placed strategically throughout the country, the system, known as Kippat Barzel in Hebrew, reacts within a matter of seconds and is manned 24 hours a day. It was originally designed to protect cities and strategic sites against missiles with a range of between 2.5 and 43 miles, but is "thought to have been expanded", said Sky News.

 How effective is it? 

 Over the past decade, the Iron Dome has proved to be "particularly effective", said Euronews. Israeli authorities claim it has a success rate of more than 90%, "although some defense analysts question those numbers", said The Washington Post.

Iron Dome quickly became the "envy of other militaries", said Sky News. It is "not perfect", however, and "has a saturation point at which it would become overwhelmed, but this exact level is unknown".

The events of 7 October 2023 – when Hamas launched more than 3,000 rockets and missiles from Gaza into Israel  – seemed to test the limits of the system.

This has raised concern that Iranian proxy group Hezbollah – which is based in Lebanon and has an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles pointing at Israel – "might launch an intensive barrage to coincide with the arrival of the weapons from Iran, in an attempt to overwhelm air defences", said Kemp in The Telegraph.

Hamas's attack, Iran's bombardment and Hezbollah's almost daily firing of rockets and drones across the border also reveal that the Iron Dome "may be effective operationally, but strategically it doesn't really deter the Palestinian organisations," Jean-Loup Samaan, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Singapore’s Middle-East Institute, told Euronews.

 How much does it cost? 

 Running the world's most advanced anti-missile defence shield does not come cheap. According to Samaan, just one of the interceptor Tamir missiles is estimated to cost around $50,000.

Funding was originally undertaken by Israel, "but because of the high cost of the system, the country has had to rely on its long-time ally, the United States", said Euronews.

According to the US State Department, the US has provided Israel with $3.4 billion in funding for missile defence since 2009, including $1.3 billion for Iron Dome support. Joe Biden last year requested a further $14 billion in military aid for Israel, a sizeable portion of which would go towards anti-missile defences. The support, part of a $95 billion package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine, is still being held up by Republicans in Congress.