The cost of producing the full battery of the Iron Dome is about $ 100 million (French)

The Israeli occupation army said on the fourth of December that more than 11,<> rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards the occupied Palestinian territories, since the start of the aggression on the Strip on the seventh of last October.

The rocket fire has 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.

In countering the resistance missiles, Israel uses 3 integrated air defense systems:

  • Iron Dome.
  • Arrow System (Arrow)
  • David's Slingshot.

These systems have different dimensions, some of which are used to repel short-range missiles, others for 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 or Kibat Barzil system in Hebrew to intercept rockets fired by Palestinian resistance factions in response to Israeli bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Each battery contains 3 or 4 launchers, 20 Tamir missiles, and a radar that controls the missile's trajectory, according to Raytheon, the US defense giant that co-produces the system in cooperation with Israel's Rafael defense company, Time magazine reported recently.

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 fires a missile to intercept and destroy the attacking missile in mid-air, and if the system determines that the missile is heading into an open area or to the sea, it allows it to pass.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the number of Iron Dome batteries currently deployed, but as of 2021, Israel had 10 batteries spread 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 almost 90 percent effective, according to Rafael, but they can be overcome if a large number of rockets are fired at the same time, allowing some of them to pass through as they have done many times during the war.

The Iron Dome Material Cost to the Israeli Treasury

The total cost of developing, manufacturing, deploying and maintaining the system is unknown, but it is likely to reach several billions, according to Axios.

The cost of producing a full battery is estimated at about $100 million, while each interceptor missile costs about $50,<>, 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 Congressional Research Service.

The United States invested heavily in the system, helping to pay for its development and renovation during times of fighting.

US President Joe Biden recently said he would ask Congress for $14.3 billion in military aid to Israel.

Much of it will help develop air and missile defense systems, and Biden also said, "We are working to increase additional military assistance to Israel, including ammunition and interceptor missiles to renew Iron Dome."

The Israeli military said about 11,7 rockets and drones had been fired at Israel from Gaza and other fronts since Oct. <>.

If we exclude 2000,9 rockets that were not intercepted by Iron Dome because they landed in open and uninhabited areas - according to Reuters news agency - the rest is equal to <>,<> rockets that were intercepted, or attempted to be intercepted by the Iron Dome.

If we multiply this figure by the $50,450 cost of a single interceptor missile, the total figure is $<> million for missiles alone.

With the addition of the operational cost of these missiles, including the costs of transporting and loading them, personnel servicing, feeding and launching them, and other operational costs, the number will rise significantly.

Suffice it to say that a single rocket fired by Hamas costs only $600 and is therefore about 100 times less expensive than Iron Dome interceptors.

So if Hamas fired only 11,6 rockets, the cost would be $6.<> million.

Resistance missiles show very clearly that the best air defense systems can be defeated if they are overcome by the number of threats they have to face at the same time.

David's Slingshot. One rocket costs a million dollars

David's Slingshot, an advanced system for intercepting ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, is produced by the Israeli company Rafael in cooperation with the American company Raytheon capable of intercepting rockets 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 regime has been operating for about six years, it did not carry out its first interception on the ground until last May, when it shot down a rocket fired at Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip, and another rocket fired at Jerusalem from Gaza with David's sling that same month.

The system has been used again during the current war, dropping a long-range rocket fired from Gaza into northern Israel at the start of the battle.

A single rocket from 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

Produced by Israel Aerospace Industries in cooperation with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the Arrow missile defense system is the top layer of Israel's multi-layered air defenses, focuses on intercepting attacking ballistic missiles, and consists of two types of interceptor missiles: 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 Nov. 9, the first practical use of the system.

The Arrow 2 system was first used on Oct. 31, and the Jerusalem Post reported that Arrow 2's interception of another rocket from Yemen occurred outside the atmosphere at an altitude of about 60 miles, making it the first case of combat in space.

The Arrow 1 and Stock 2 interceptor missiles cost about $1.5 million and $<> million, respectively.

Enormous costs to the Israeli budget

The huge cost of Israel's missile defense systems increases the strain on the Israeli budget as a result of Tel Aviv's war on the Gaza Strip, and every rocket fired by Hamas – whether Iron Dome succeeds or fails – increases the cost of the war that the Israeli treasury must bear.

Israel's budget in October posted a deficit of 23 billion shekels ($6.14 billion), while Israel said it had borrowed about 30 billion shekels ($8 billion) since the war began.

Investment bank JPMorgan said Israel's war on Gaza would lead to a larger-than-expected budget deficit next year, adding that the cost would lead to a big budget jump.

Bank analysts said they expect the government budget deficit to widen to around 4.5 percent of GDP in 2023 and 2024.

Government debt could reach 63 percent of GDP by the end of 2024, compared to 57.4 percent before the war.

The Israeli government recently approved an "unprecedented" supplementary budget of $8 billion to meet the needs of the war, and the Israel Broadcasting Corporation said the government approved a new state budget of 30 billion shekels (about $8 billion) until the end of this year just to finance war expenses.

The governor of the Bank of Israel, Amir Yaron, predicted that the costs of the war on the Gaza Strip would amount to 10% of GDP, equivalent to $52 billion.

Source : Al Jazeera