Iron Dome or Kippat Barzel-(IPA-/kipat barzel/ כיפת ברזל) in Hebrew, is a mobile anti-air system used to intercept rockets and artillery fire. It was publicly anounced that it was being developed at around 2008 (Although research begun in 2005) by RAFAEL, Armament Developement Authority.
Picture of a unit:
Now, this thing is incredibly awesome. It has a computer system and it is networked.
Now how does it work?
A unit has lots of sensors and is connected to a military network which tracks rockets being launched (Mainly from the Gaza Strip), it then calculates its trajectory and depending on the location of theapproximate point of impact, it decided whether to intercept it or not. This is important as every rocket costs between 35K-40K USD and every unit costs 50M USD so you don't want to spend the tax-payers' money on it if it's not something absolutely necessary.
Most of Southern Israel is just desert and agriculture. Southern Israel is referred to as the Negev which basically is "South" in biblical language.
In the Negev there are some big cities and lots of small settlements (legal ones ;P).
Anyway, back to Kippat Barzel. This things shoots rockets down, costs shitloads of money and most importantly saves lives.
PS. When we learned about this at school it was hilarious as everyone had recently watched the Simpson's movie and we thought they were talking about a big metal dome.
50 comments:
Wow, that is amazing would have been nice to have this little toy during the cuban missle crisis
waw i had one friend in israel who worked with anti-air stuff during his military service, wonder if he had to work with one of those...
looks badass
Funny that they would decide whether or not the missile is worth shooting down... any missile in the air has a mission and isn't wasted. You'd think that any potentially lethal action would be acted against. Wow, I feel like an ultra conservative american, now... I need a shower.
@The Radical Chemist There's no point shooting down a missile which is going to hit agricultural lands, as opposed to hitting an appartment building. And besides, each missile fired costs 40K. It's not that the IDF (Israel Defense Force) is lacking any resources, I'm just saying it would be a waste.
That is quite awesome
METAL GEAR?! Snakkkeeee!
Ahahaha! looks like metal gear rex!!
That's some cool stuff, and it's already been put into use and actually works.
Sounds pretty epic. I'll take two.
Nice photo :I i dont like weapons tho
Pretty awesome, the problem it would be the cost, imagine have tons of Iron Domes to stop a war?
awesome rockets man, lol
funny fact, i had never thought about how much a rocket would cost o_o defnatlly not cheap
Paitriot was a big failure, not sure if this one will work.
Metal gear xD
That's pretty awesome :P
Looks pretty damn badass
Very cool, would like to see that thing in action
I need one of these for when I go camping.
i´m the only one who din´t like weapons? >.<
I want one
thats pretty serious, i think it certainly is efficient but im not exactly for the whole war situation thats going on at the moment!
Awesome, gimme one <3
Not really too much of a weapon fan.
@People who don't like weapons, it's defensive, not offensive :P
Where do I sign up?
i badly want one!
Id love to have one of these in my backyard so I wouldn't have to deal with the constant noise of planes overhead, just with the noise of the system firing off.
"That should do the trick" :D that'll keep everyone out
The amount of money put into the military is just staggering
I agree that the amount of money spent in armed forces is stupid, having said this it still is awsome! :)
nice read thanks you
i agree, metal gear
Interesting. I always liked the anti-missile defense systems, just because of the irony of shooting a missile down with another missile.
A missile shooting a missile.. misception? idk, i fail on that. lol
Looks crazy. I wonder how well it works.
pretty cool!
followed!
Very interseting, keep posting!
is this like the patriot missiles
i've heard about this. pretty awsome, I bet the US has several in hidden spots already
So badass!
This is totally going on my wishlist next christmas.
Badd-asss!
sounds good
Sounds incredibly useful.
Very cool
That looks insane, and when I read iron dome, I immediately thought of the simpsons movie aswell!
That's a serious bit of kit!
Guilty of the Simpsons reference as well but this looks like quite a capable system. It'd be interesting how it stacks up to the Patriot Missile system which is quite reliable. At least as countermeasures go.
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