Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumIron 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
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Figured it was just another of those defense contract giveaway things. But looks like it's working out pretty well.
LeftishBrit
(41,175 posts)Politicub
(12,162 posts)And it's a weapon of defense. Not offense.
ProgressiveProfessor
(22,144 posts)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.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)Hope it continues to succeed and improve.