Can Israel's Iron Dome stop Iran's hypersonic missiles?
A real game changer
For several decades, Israel's existence has relied on state-of-the-art defensive systems in order to deal with the threat of its larger neighboring countries. That could change now.
Asymmetrical warfare
Al Jazeera describes the conflict between Israel and Iran as one defined by asymmetrical warfare. However, Tehran could have a secret weapon that could improve their odds.
Israel's air superiority
Israel, Al Jazeera writes, has a state-of-the-art air force with 340 combat aircraft that includes 174 F-16 and 45 stealth jets.
The walls of Jericho
However, Tel Aviv’s strength relies on its defense system, such as David’s Sling and The Arrow System, but probably the most important and well-known of these is the Iron Dome.
The Iron Dome
NBC News describes the Iron Dome as a network of radars supervised by a command center that tracks and measures incoming rockets to see if they pose a threat to important sites or population centers.
The cornerstone of Israel's defense system
If the incoming rocket is deemed a threat, the command center responds by launching a Matir missile to intercept it. The Iron Dome is regarded as one of the cornerstones of Israel’s defensive system.
Jamming the system
However, NBC News highlights that experts have commented that the Iron Dome has limitations, namely, the whole system could be overwhelmed by incoming attacks coming from multiple directions.
Fattah-1 and Fattah-2
Here where Iran’s Fattah-1 and Fattah-2 comes into play. Tehran’s hypersonic missiles have proven difficult to intercept by Israel’s defense system, Al Jazeera reports.
five minutes or less
According to Al Jazeera, although they are limited in number, Tehran’s hypersonic missiles can travel 15 times the speed of sound, meaning that they can be launched from Iran into Israeli territory in less than five minutes.
Iran's rocket arsenal
This is hardly the only weapon in Iran’s rocket arsenal. As hypersonic missiles have proven to be difficult to maneuver, Tehran also relies on cruise missiles that can avoid obstacles and fly under radar’s cover.
