(Dan Tri) – Thousands of rockets pouring towards Israel in the past few days have posed a great challenge to the powerful `Iron Dome` shield of the Jewish State.
The `Iron Dome` shield massively intercepted Hamas rockets
Israel’s `Iron Dome` shield activates to intercept Hamas rockets (Photo: AFP).
Since May 10, the Palestinian armed force Hamas has fired more than 1,000 rockets and mortar shells toward Israel.
However, observers say that Hamas fired large numbers and low-cost rockets into Israel continuously for many days, while `Iron Dome` was using much more expensive rockets to deal with it, causing problems.
Military experts believe that the massive attack is a tactic of Hamas to overload the `Iron Dome` to find weaknesses in this powerful system.
`Iron Dome` has exposed loopholes when having to cope with a large number of rockets from Hamas recently (Photo: AFP).
According to The Drive, Hamas’s attacks in the past few days are considered the most rocket attacks in history that Hamas has ever aimed at the Jewish State.
The back-and-forth attacks in recent days mark the most intense conflict between Hamas and Israel since 2014.
Graphic simulating the operating mechanism of `Iron Dome` (Graphic: Business Insider).
An `Iron Dome` system consists of 3-4 launchers, each launcher equipped with up to 20 Tamir interceptor missiles, along with radars.
Each Tamir interceptor missile will have a radar detector, 2-way connection with the control system to receive additional information needed during combat.
`Iron Dome` is capable of intercepting cruise missiles, small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and low-altitude aircraft.
This interception system is very powerful and has a high interception rate, but Israel also admitted that it did not always hit in recent Hamas attacks.
According to The Drive, Hamas is said to have increased its reserves of rockets and mortar shells in recent times to prepare for massive attack scenarios like the past few days.
Cost issue
Tamir missiles cost too much compared to Hamas’s rockets and mortars (Photo: AFP).
An `Iron Dome` system can launch about 60-80 Tamir missiles at the same time.
Normally, Israel will use 2 Tamirs to hit 1 target to increase the hit rate, but this tactic is only effective with a small number of rockets to launch and is not suitable when Hamas rains down rockets.
The issue of cost is also considered by Israel.
Meanwhile, Hamas’s rockets are unguided firepower, so they will certainly be much cheaper than Tamir’s, with some sources saying it could only cost about 500-600 USD/rocket.