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Kurska

(5,739 posts)
Tue Nov 20, 2012, 02:50 AM Nov 2012

Iron Dome – the best show in town

In a country with no shortage of pilgrimage sites, few right now can compete with the Iron Dome missile defense system, in particular the battery set up in the Gush Dan region on Saturday.

Pointing and speaking about the system in reverential tones reserved for the Western Wall or the graves of holy men, dozens of curious onlookers climbed up a hill outside Tel Aviv to gaze down at the battery on Monday, hoping against all hope to hear an air raid siren and see Iron Dome paint its contrails across the sky, leaving the remnants of a Fajr-5 rocket drifting to the ground.

Awe-inspired onlookers are a common sight at the Iron Dome batteries already set up in Ashdod, Ashkelon and elsewhere, but before Saturday in Tel Aviv, such entertainment was hard to come by, especially for free.

Chen Koko, 17, rode to the top of the hill on Monday morning, his mom, Rinat, on the back of his scooter, hoping to get lucky after coming for three days in a row from his family home a few blocks away, narrowly missing each launch.

While his mom spoke about her plans to bring containers of spaghetti for the soldiers manning the system, Chen described the fear of hearing the rocket sirens over Tel Aviv for the first time last Thursday, and the knowledge that his city was no longer out of rocket range.

http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=292642

5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Iron Dome – the best show in town (Original Post) Kurska Nov 2012 OP
Have to admit, I was really skeptical at first Scootaloo Nov 2012 #1
Agree. LeftishBrit Nov 2012 #2
Revolutionary Politicub Nov 2012 #3
Not really ProgressiveProfessor Nov 2012 #4
I much prefer Iron Dome to Cast Lead morningfog Nov 2012 #5
 

Scootaloo

(25,699 posts)
1. Have to admit, I was really skeptical at first
Tue Nov 20, 2012, 02:52 AM
Nov 2012

Figured it was just another of those defense contract giveaway things. But looks like it's working out pretty well.

ProgressiveProfessor

(22,144 posts)
4. Not really
Tue Nov 20, 2012, 09:02 PM
Nov 2012

All SAMs are defensive.

It was not without its engineering challenges, but it was not revolutionary in terms of tech or even SAMs.

It is a game changes since it negates the longer range rockets effectively.

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