The Iron Dome: How does Israel’s missile defence system work?

On October 7, Hamas militants launched a barrage of rockets from the blockaded Gaza Strip towards Israel as part of a surprise attack that has reignited the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Key to repelling rockets on the Israeli side is the Iron Dome, a missile defence system that has become a cornerstone of the country’s security since its initial deployment in 2011.

Developed by state-owned Israeli defence company, Rafael, it has proved to be particularly effective over the years. Israeli authorities have claimed that the military technology boasts a 90% success rate at intercepting enemy rockets.

So how exactly does the Iron Dome work?

Each Iron Dome battery, of which there are believed to be at least 10 in operation on Israeli territory, has three components. The first is a radar that detects incoming rockets. Then there is the Tamir interceptor missile that is launched to intercept the incoming rocket in the air.

Finally, there is a command and control centre which contains the software that creates and sends the message from the radar to the interceptor missile.

The system is designed to intercept rockets with a range of between 4km and 70km.

Despite the 90% success rate offered by Israeli military officials, Jean-Loup Samaan, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Singapore’s Middle-East Institute, describes the issue of the Iron Dome’s effectiveness as "very contentious".

“The reason for that is at the end of the day, we have to rely on estimates and data, which is the data of the Israeli government,” he explained to Euronews Next.

“So far, what the Israeli government has said is that the effectiveness of Iron Dome is pretty high. They've been talking about a 90% interception rate. The question is first, what does