# A question about Israel's Iron Dome **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** israel-hamas-war\ **Created:** [October 10, 2023, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-israels-iron-dome/991344 "2023-10-10T00:23:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-israels-iron-dome/991344/21 "2023-10-10T03:31:49Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Iron Dome was designed to have a low cost per shot, a high rate of fire, and be cheap enough to be used affordably against massed attacked by very simple primitive home-made rockets. Like the _Qassam_ Another thing is that the system doesn’t shoot down every incoming rocket. It predicts where the rockets will fall and doesn’t intercept them if they won’t hit anything important. The incoming rockets are unguided, so it’s relatively straightforward to figure out where they’ll land. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-israels-iron-dome/991344/22 "2023-10-10T04:14:27Z")
Indeed, there’s a decent short video of the systems involved in Iron Dome, how it works, and how it decides what to intercept and what to ignore here: > **[How Israel’s Iron Dome Works | WSJ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTKb7Ffcv2I%2F)** > > Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and mortars. It’s blocked thousands of missiles since 2011... The basic upshot is it will only intercept projectiles headed for populated area and will attempt to intercept them such that there is the least amount of debris landing on populated areas from successful intercepts. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2023, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-israels-iron-dome/991344/23 "2023-10-10T14:45:20Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I always thought that an interceptor detonates in front of an incoming missile so that its blast wave forms an expanding circle of force in the air and that the incoming missile runs into the oncoming bubble-force-wave and it damages it or throws it off course, kind of like a car slamming 100mph into a wall. You get better results if you use your explosive warhead to launch heavy chunks of metal at the target. The blast wave will attenuate over a fairly modest distance, but the chunks of metal will be able to cause damage at a substantially greater range (or over the same range for the cost of less explosive, which can mean a cheaper and/or more maneuverable missile). Can’t vouch for the veracity of this, but here’s a Reddit thread showing what is claimed to be a Patriot missile warhead, with metal cubelets packed around an explosive core: [https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/emfc4s/patriot\_missile\_warhead\_785x679/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/emfc4s/patriot_missile_warhead_785x679/) Another warhead variant here. Different implementation, but it’s still about using high explosive to launch metal toward a target: > **[Continuous-rod warhead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous-rod_warhead)** > > A continuous-rod warhead is a specialized munition exhibiting an annular blast fragmentation pattern, thus when exploding it spreads into a large circle cutting through the target. It is used in anti-aircraft and anti-missile missiles. > Rifle and machine-gun bullets were used against early military aircraft during World War I. Artillery was used when aircraft flew above the range of rifle and machine-gun cartridges. Since the probability of actually striking the aircraft was small, artillery she... The Tamir reportedly does something similar, in that the explosive is designed to propel the fragments primarily in a radial direction rather than spherical (as the Patriots do). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-israels-iron-dome/991344.md?page=1)