It is a lie to say that Iron Dome is protecting Israelis from Hamas
July 31, 2014
by Alastair Sloan
A sceptical Philip E Coyle III shook his head at the Israel Defence Forces claim that its “Iron Dome” missile defence system intercepts nine out of ten Hamas rockets. “No military system is ninety per cent effective,” he said.
Coyle is amongst a worrying number of Israeli and American defence experts disputing the efficacy of a programme that has so far cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Thanks to a recent hike in funding from the US Congress, it is set to receive hundreds of millions more.
The sceptic isn’t alone. Theodore Postol, a physicist and missile-defence expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, estimates that the interception rate of the Iron Dome system is just five per cent, or ten on a lucky day. His research was assisted by Dr Mordechai Shefer, who worked previously for Rafael, the system’s manufacturer.
We should listen because Postol and friends have form in disputing defence statistics: while the United States government was claiming that Patriot missiles had a near one hundred per cent accuracy rate during the first Gulf War, these scientists were debunking the sales patter to Congress. At the end of the research, Postol concluded that the US missile system had enjoyed an accuracy rate of… zero. The embarrassing statistic is now accepted widely in the defence community.
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