Iron Dome defense system saved lives

You find a single source, and that is all the evidence you need I see.

Of course, it also helps if you know a bit about how AMD actually works. And if you read the article more closely, you can see part of the reason for this:

This is part of an old joke we used in PATRIOT land. If a PATRIOT Battalion has 100 incoming missiles, and shoots down all 100 of them, what is it's effectiveness rating?

50%.

Because it is SOP to fire 2 missiles at ever incoming target. So guaranteed, you will never have a missile-per-target rating above 50%. Period.

And many times missiles are allowed to land anyways. Each Battery has an assigned protected area. Any missiles that will not land in that area are allowed to get through. So a lot of times missiles are not even engaged, because there was no reason to.

And that nonsense of finding missile parts, that is just nonsense. Unlike the SCUD, the Qassam is a solid fueled rocket. So when struck, there is a much greater chance of air detonation. The round punctures the casing, causing the powder to now burn out of control, instead of as a controlled burn. Hence, much smaller and less recognizeable debris landing.

This is opposed to a SCUD, which is liquid fueled. When it's casing is punctured, often times only one of the 2 liquids used for fuel is released, (in the case of the SCUD, one is kerosene, the other is nitric acid). Puncture only one of those and you then simply have a large but mostly inert hunk of metal falling to earth.

 

There were two points to my post. One was to point out that Fox is a rediculously unreliable source (not the case with my source)

The second was to point out that not everyone seems to think that the "iron dome" performed as well as was alluded to.

Given the past propensity to exadurate the effectiveness of these missile systems, and lack of independent credible evidence, I remain a skeptic.

 

I'm not the expert on ADMS as Mushroom is...but what I've read the Israeli system (Iron Dome) incorporates tracking software linked to radar that calculates the trajectory of the incoming rocket. If it is assessed as landing in an unpopulated and remote area, it's simply left alone...it's not engaged. Therefore basing the success or failure of this system strictly on kill percentage, ignores a major design feature of the system. It was not designed to shoot down every incoming projectile of a given size...part of it's design was to assess the threat and react or not react..accordingly.

 

"...Fox is a rediculously unreliable source..."

Taxcutter says:
At least as good as ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, MSNBC, the NYT and the WaPo if not better.




On the larger subject.

Nobody says Iron Dome is 100% impenetrable ,but it is impenetrable enough that it negated the effectiveness of the Paleos' trash rockets.