Since the start of Operation Protective Edge, Israel has been attacked not only by nearly 1,000 rockets from Gaza but also by missiles from Syria and Lebanon. Gold is confident that Iron Dome is capable of dealing even with multiple simultaneous fronts. “Wherever you put the system, the area is protected. You can move it to Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv is protected. You can put it in Kiryat Shmona, Kiryat Shmona is protected. If you place it in Haifa, Haifa is protected — no matter who is shooting at you.”
Of course, he added, Israel needs “a very large inventory and also a few working production lines” to ensure that the system doesn’t run dry. “But I’m sure the Ministry of Defense is doing it and that there’s no bottleneck in this aspect.”
The system’s high rate of success does carry risks of the public becoming complacent about the threat of rocket attacks, Gold acknowledged. Civilians need to continue to meticulously seek shelter in protected areas whenever sirens sound, because despite Iron Dome’s very high success rate, “it’s not 100 percent,” he said. Additionally, dangerous debris from intercepted rockets could fall from the sky.
Israel’s political and military leadership, on the other hand, is unlikely to be swept away in a wave of unwarranted smugness, Gold suggested. They know that to keep Israelis safe they need to combine deterrence and prevention of weapons from being smuggled to Hamas and Hezbollah with massive intelligence work, he said. “These are layers that support each other. I don’t think we’ll see a future in which people will sit at home and do nothing during an attack, and the Iron Dome will do everything.”
Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/iron-dome-will-keep-on-getting-better-developer-says/
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