Update From Israel: Iron Dome Fail

We’ve read about the Patriot fail in Kiev—after the first few encounters with Russian incoming Russian missiles the silence of the Patriots has been deafening. Now reports that appear reliable are coming in stating that Israel’s Iron Dome, developed in collaboration with the US, has failed. This is the type of technical stuff for which I have no background, but here’s what we’re hearing:

DD Geopolitics

@DD_Geopolitics

US media: Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system did not protect against missile strikes

The American media, when covering the conflict in Israel, admit that the high-tech Israeli missile defense system "Iron Dome", developed with the support of the United States, contrary to expectations, could not protect the civilian population of Israel and repel a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip.

Earlier, the Jerusalem Post newspaper reported that the death toll in Israel during the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has increased to at least 250, and the Times of Israel, citing the Ministry of Health, wrote that the number of wounded in Israel is at least 1,452 people.

"This is a high-tech missile defense system developed with the support of the United States, the basis of the country's defense capability, on which Israel relied in protecting civilians from fire from the Gaza Strip. But no matter what happened this morning, the Iron Dome could not stop this massive strike," an NBC News correspondent said during a report from Israel.

3:06 PM · Oct 7, 2023

It appears that this was a case of the system being overwhelmed by sheer numbers, not by sophisticated attack methods. However, these brute force, massed rocket attacks could punch a hole in Israeli defenses. Mike Mihajlovic is a former officer in the Serbian military:

Engineer, defense technologies specialist, author, historian, analyst, former army officer...

He points out a potential significant vulnerability in the Iron Dome system:

Mike Mihajlovic

@MihajlovicMike

It appears that Hamas accumulated thousands of rockets which barrages simply saturate the Iron Dome radars so it can't process the data correctly... If they start to use drones simultaneously to sneak beneath it will be disastrous for the defenders. Iron Dome batteries are stationary, so eliminating just one or two, without a proper overlap can open the zone for future rocket launches.

1:17 PM · Oct 7, 2023

He also links to a video of an Israeli Merkava tank being attacked with a type of RPG (PG-7T), and notes that no Active Protection System (APS) appears to have been triggered. That is very bad news if Israel sends tanks into Gaza, because most modern tanks rely on APS systems for safety—in urban environments especially:

Mike Mihajlovic

@MihajlovicMike

Something alarming for IDF armor corps: mighty Merkava hit by PG-7T with a tandem 73mm charge and not a single APS was triggered since Hamas moved across the fence. The tank was almost a sitting duck at supposedly defense position. Something very wrong is going on...

Isolated incident? EW jamming, which Hamas has claimed? No way to say for now.