IDF Says Massive Hezbollah Rocket Threat May Obviate Highly Anticipated Iron Dome Defense System

Jacob Levkowicz
JINSA
24 July '10

On Monday, Israel’s highly anticipated Iron Dome anti-rocket system passed its final operations test, following months of speculation and political haggling in both Jerusalem and Washington. While Monday’s test may have helped eliminate concerns about system’s ability to respond to short-range rocket threats, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) leadership has indicated that ground operations would be still be necessary in the face of a large barrage of rockets and analysts continue to claim that Iron Dome’s high cost may well prevent it from ever entering serial production.

Rocket Threat Places Israel’s Civilian Population on the “Front Lines”

The rocket threat from Gaza and Lebanon poses several challenges to IDF planners who traditionally have placed the civilian population within the conceptual innermost “security shell,” far removed from the front lines of combat. The findings of a recent round table discussion featuring high-ranking Israeli defense officials and representatives from JINSA, the Near East South Asia (NESA) Center of the Pentagon’s National Defense University, and the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), however, shatter this illusion. Discussion centered on the implications of civilian population centers becoming the new front lines of combat.

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