The Israeli occupation army said on December 4 that more than 11,000 rockets had been launched from the Gaza Strip towards the occupied Palestinian territories since the start of the aggression against the Strip on October 7.
Rocket weapons have emerged as one of the most important weapons possessed by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades – the military arm of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) – and other resistance factions against the occupation.
To confront the resistance missiles, Israel uses 3 integrated air defense systems. Which:
These systems have different dimensions. Some are used to repel short-range missiles, and others are used to repel medium- or long-range missiles.
These systems cost the Israeli budget huge sums of money, which we will learn about in this report.
Iron Dome
Israel uses the “Iron Dome” system, or “Kibat Barzel” in Hebrew, to intercept rockets launched by Palestinian resistance factions, in response to the Israeli bombing of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Iron Dome is a series of batteries that use radars to detect and intercept short-range missiles. Each battery contains 3 or 4 launchers, 20 Tamir missiles, and a radar that controls the missile’s trajectory, according to Raytheon, the American defense giant that participates in the production of The system is in cooperation with the Israeli defense company Rafael, according to what Time magazine recently reported.
Once the radar detects an enemy missile, the system determines whether the missile is heading toward a populated area or not. If so, the dome launches a missile to intercept the attacking missile and destroy it in the air. If the system determines that the missile is heading toward an open area or to the sea, It allows him to pass.
The IDF declined to comment on the number of Iron Dome batteries currently deployed, but beginning in 2021, Israel had 10 batteries deployed across the country, each capable of defending an area of 60 square miles (155 square kilometers), according to Raytheon.
How accurate and effective is Iron Dome?
They are about 90 percent effective, according to Rafael, but can be overcome if a large number of missiles are fired at the same time, allowing some to pass through, as happened many times during the war.
The material cost of Iron Dome on the Israeli treasury
The total cost of developing, manufacturing, deploying and maintaining the system is unknown, but is likely to reach several billion, according to Axios.
The cost of producing the complete battery is estimated at about $100 million, while the cost of each interceptor missile is about $50,000, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The United States has allocated nearly $10 billion for Israeli missile defense systems, including about $3 billion for Iron Dome, according to the US Congressional Research Service.
The United States invested heavily in the system, and helped pay for its development and refurbishment during times of combat.
US President Joe Biden recently said that he would ask Congress for $14.3 billion in military aid to Israel.
A large part of it will help develop air and missile defense systems, and Biden also said, “We are working to increase additional military aid to Israel, including ammunition and interceptor missiles to renew Iron Dome.”
The Israeli army said that about 11,000 missiles and drones have been launched at Israel from Gaza and other fronts since last October 7.
If we exclude the 2,000 missiles that were not intercepted by the Iron Dome because they fell in open, uninhabited areas – according to what Reuters news agency reported – then the remainder equals 9,000 missiles that were intercepted, or attempted to be intercepted, by the Iron Dome.
If we multiply this number by $50,000, the cost of one interception missile; The total figure amounts to $450 million for the missiles alone.
Adding the operational cost of these missiles, including the costs of transporting and loading them, the personnel responsible for servicing them, feeding them, launching them, and other operational costs; The number will rise significantly.
It suffices to know that the cost of one missile launched by Hamas does not exceed $600, and therefore it is about 100 times less expensive than the cost of Iron Dome interceptor missiles.
Thus, if Hamas fired only 11,000 rockets, the cost would be $6.6 million.
The resistance missiles show very clearly that even the best air defense systems can be defeated if they are overwhelmed by the number of threats they have to confront at the same time.
David’s Sling… One missile costs a million dollars
David’s Sling is one of the advanced systems for intercepting ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. This system, which is produced by the Israeli company Rafael in cooperation with the American company Raytheon, is capable of intercepting missiles and missiles with a range of 40-300 kilometers (25-185 miles).
The system has been in active service in Israel since 2017, and constitutes the middle layer of Israel’s missile defense capabilities, which also includes the short-range Iron Dome, and a higher level of the “Arrow” missile defense system, which aims to engage long-range ballistic missiles.
Although the system has been operating for about 6 years, it did not carry out its first real-world interception until last May, when it shot down a missile fired at Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip, and another missile fired at Jerusalem from Gaza was shot down by David’s Sling. In the same month.
The system was used again during the current war, when a long-range missile fired from Gaza was shot down into northern Israel, at the beginning of the battle.
One missile of this system costs one million US dollars, and it is not known exactly how many times this system has been used, but Israel has admitted to using it at least once during its current aggression against the Gaza Strip.
Arrow system
The “Arrow” missile defense system was produced by the Israel Aerospace Industries Corporation in cooperation with the US Missile Defense Agency. It is considered the highest layer of multi-layered Israeli air defenses. It focuses on intercepting attacking ballistic missiles. It consists of two types of interceptor missiles: They are: Arrow 2 and Arrow 3.
The more advanced “Arrow 3” system aims to defend against long-range missile threats, while the “Arrow 2” system aims to defend against medium-range threats.
Israel used the Arrow 3 missile to shoot down a ballistic missile coming from Yemen on November 9, which was the first practical use of this system.
As for the Arrow 2 system, it was used for the first time last October 31, and the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post reported that the Arrow 2 interception of another missile coming from Yemen occurred outside the atmosphere at an altitude of about 60 miles, making it the first case of combat in space.
The cost of the Arrow 1 and Arrow 2 interceptor missiles is approximately $1.5 million and $2 million, respectively.
Huge costs to the Israeli budget
The huge cost of Israeli missile defense systems increases the pressure on the Israeli budget severely as a result of the war launched by Tel Aviv in the Gaza Strip, and every missile fired by Hamas – whether Iron Dome succeeds in intercepting it or fails – increases the cost of the war that must be borne by the Israeli treasury.
Last October, the budget in Israel recorded a deficit of 23 billion shekels ($6.14 billion), at a time when Israel announced that it had borrowed about 30 billion shekels ($8 billion) since the start of the war.
Investment bank JP Morgan said that Israel’s war on Gaza will lead to a larger than expected budget deficit for next year, adding that the cost will lead to a significant jump in the budget.
Bank analysts said they expect the government’s budget deficit to expand to about 4.5% of GDP in 2023 and 2024.
Government debt could reach 63% of GDP by the end of 2024, compared to 57.4% before the war.
The Israeli government recently approved an “unprecedented” supplementary budget worth $8 billion to meet the needs of the war. The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that the government approved a new state budget of 30 billion shekels (about 8 billion dollars) until the end of the current year only to finance war expenses.
The Governor of the Bank of Israel (Central Bank), Amir Yaron, expected that the costs of the war on the Gaza Strip would reach 10% of the gross domestic product, equivalent to 52 billion dollars.
