Is Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system ironclad?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

JERUSALEM (AP) — Since Israel activated the Iron Dome in 2011, the cutting-edge rocket-defense system has intercepted thousands of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

The system has given residents a sense of security, and Israelis can often be seen watching the projectiles flying through the skies and destroying their targets overhead.

But the current war with Gaza’s militant Hamas group might be its stiffest challenge yet.

In just two weeks, Hamas has fired 7,000 rockets toward Israel, according to the Israeli military. That is more than any of the previous four wars fought between Israel and Hamas since the militant group seized power in Gaza in 2007.

https://apnews.com/article/iron-dome-missile-defense-israel-palestinians-rockets-hamas-f57508d0e53945d1071d4582fcdae8d2

It was the sheer number of rockets that was able to overwhelm it. It's much the same thing Ukraine did to overwhelm Russia's S-400 system.

[Quakerfriend]

1. I heard that it's 90% effective. n/t

[T_A]

2. Hamas Was Able To Swamp It

I don't don't know what the threshold is, but if you shoot a certain number of thousands of rockets/missiles at it, doesn't matter where they're aimed, the Iron Dome becomes overwhelmed. Then right behind those, you fire missiles that are specifically targeted and they get through.

This was hypothesized a couple of years ago by a couple of experts, and Hamas proved their theory.

[Shipwack]

3. That's the problem... It's -only- 90% effective.

Missiles are getting cheaper with deadlier payloads. It’s now cost effective to send thousands of missiles to a target in the hopes of getting hundreds of payloads through.

That’s not even taking into consideration that the defender is going to run out of ammo at some point, which is what Russia’s problem was. I have no idea how cheap the Iron Dome ammo is, or how quickly it can be replenished.

I hope the U.S. Navy is paying attention. My friends in the surface fleet always boasted about how accurate and deadly the Phalanx anti missile system was. Unfortunately, the next time we are facing a serious adversary they aren’t going to be going against a half dozen million dollar missiles; it'll be several hundred $5000 missiles and/or drones.