A ballistic missile flies really high (as in, space high), and then just 'falls' to its target. In that way it travels a 'ballistic' trajectory, like a bullet would on the way down. (Though many can slightly angle on the way down to dodge defenses and better hit targets)
As a result they can be going crazy fast on their way down. Very hard to defend against. Easiest is to shoot them down on the way up, but they do that over friendly territory. If you have a good enough system, you can sometimes intercept them in space, but that still quite hard.
You've gotten some answers on what a ballistic missile is, but just in case anyone needs more clarification:
The missiles that Hamas has been sending into Israel for decades now are unguided and "homemade", essentially just model rockets on steroids. They weld together a rocket body with fins and then use a fuel made from fertilizer such as potassium/urea nitrate. For the warhead (explosive tip) they use high explosives that they scavenge from military targets or (rarely) make themselves.
Since they are unguided and fairly amateur, they cause a high degree of collateral damage since it's impossible to accurately aim them at military targets. Generally it seems that Hamas doesn't really care where they hit, they just want them to hit anywhere in Israel (including civilian housing).
These amateur missiles are the rockets that the Iron Dome is designed to defend against, and the system generally does a great job at stopping them.
The missiles in the OP are military-grade ballistic missiles, hence why the Iron Dome is effectively useless less effective against them.
Iron Dome being less effective isn't anything to do with them being guided. They're launched from further away, meaning they come in steeper and faster with less time to intercept. You need bigger, longer range interceptors to stop these compared the aircraft and short-range missiles Iron Dome is designed for.
I just googled it. Apparently a ballistic missile is only powered during the beginning of it's flight. (Think of ICBM's being rocketed to space or a high altitude before falling back to earth at their target.)
Regular missiles apparently are powered throughout their flight.
I've been watching medieval movies lately and wonder why our president's don't go to war anymore. To see biden or trump out in Afghanistan w an lmg would be a sight
the combat footage would be kinda boring, just a couple of old dudes trying to walk in some sand to punch each other, but not very hard since they old as hell
this right here these cowards start the wars and poor people that sign up for the military to try and have a ok life get sent to take bullets for the rich and powerful wars
Amen. I've been studiously recycling my cans and plastic to do my bit for the planet and these dickheads are levelling whole cities with missiles. Absolute twats.
Iron Dome shoots down rockets/missiles but not ballistic missiles, which these are.
They do have Arrow to intercept ballistic missiles but it is much more limited and definitely can't deal with the sheer volume in this attack.
Sheer number of missiles also can overwhelm anti-missile missiles. The only way to defend against something like this is with energy weapons that don't have physical ammo to run out of.
Even then there'll be similar upper limits in terms of overwhelming the system, Israel has all the munitions it needs for the iron dome, you just simply can't be everywhere at once.
Even then you better hope your capacitor banks, batteries, and generators are able to keep up. And even THEN it's like any TD game - enough enemy targets can still overwhelm defenses.
I watched live coverage from Tel Aviv. It was very clear that these missiles got through by sheer numbers. Dozens of interceptions were caught on one feed. Israel probably prioritized intercepting missiles with the most concerning trajectories.
We do. However we have convinced half the population that poor people don't deserve it. Single Payer would cost less than our current system but fuck the poor.
Haven't you thought about the ruling class, who are banking on idiots without critical thinking skills supporting them and the rest being enslaved to job health insurance, so they sit still and don't kick up a fuss?
Just keep in mind this is mostly a ballistic missile attack - Iron Dome is designed to counter rockets. The iron dome might intercept one or two ballistic missiles on re-entry, but it's going to be Israel's "David's sling" and "arrow" systems that would largely be countering this.
Yep, itās a known fact that the iron dome prioritized populated areas. If a calculated trajectory puts it in a random field, the iron dome ignores it.
It has long been reported that the fear is that if Iran and Hezbollah go all out then they will overwhelm the dome. Iran's last attack was communicated ahead of time to more or less guarantee that it was symbolic because Israel et al had a good chance at shooting them all down. Things have become much more spicy since then. Tehran presumably aren't telegraphing and limiting their attacks now.
Iron Dome doesn't work as well against the Iranian made ballistic missiles. Even the Sling of David is only designed for defence against drones and very close ballistic missile interception.
This wasn't a choreographed, well warned in advanced attack. This was an attack that took 12 minutes to reach Israel, with only an hour or two's notice from Amercian Intelligence.
Depends. Iron dome tracks and estimates the site of impact. It won't intercept missiles that will be impacting in empty places like water or the desert.
This helps preserve missiles for things that will actually hitnlnreal targets and of course enough missiles could still overwhelm it.
I work for a major brokerage firm here in the US, and something interesting happened today. The markets are down, greatly in part to the tensions in the Middle East. Yet, while most everything is down, the defense sector is up. Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon, and others recorded new 52 week highs today. War is making the rich richer, go figure.
This is normal stock market shit.. if you worked for a āmajor brokerage firmā then that would not be very interesting to you.. considering that same situation happens with different industries pretty much every day.
That's not "interesting", that's completely standard market behavior when the threat of war heightens. People are just moving their money into war stocks.
Kind of sad that someone that works at a brokerage firm knows so little about the market. Although since he said "at a brokerage firm" instead of "broker" I'm guessing he probably works in something completely unrelated like HR or sales and somehow thinks that gives him enough cache to make statements from a position of authority.
Itās Reddit, he may not work in a brokerage firm but threw that in there to get more credibility. They could also be the janitor or someone else with no actual working knowledge of the stock market.
I work for a major brokerage firm here in the US, and something interesting happened today. The markets are down, greatly in part to the tensions in the Middle East. Yet, while most everything is down, the defense sector is up. Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon, and others recorded new 52 week highs today
thank god we have someone working in a major brokerage to tell us that war makes some stocks go down but stocks of companies that make the weapons used in the war go up.
It makes me crazy to think about how these things are happening, and here I am at work where my company is concerned with making sure we all spend 30 min each watching videos talking about their āmissionā.
I have a lot of thoughts and opinions about the Israeli conflicts, but the main thought I have right now is simple:
Iām scared.
Iām scared for everyone involved. Iām scared for the children who will be scarred, maimed, and killed in the fighting. Iām scared for the innocent people caught in the crossfire. Iām scared that this is going to start another world war where death is the only victor. Iām just scared and frightened.
I have a lot of Lebanese and Syrian friends and acquaintances who are thrilled Nasrallah was killed but not at the ongoing war. I hsbe Israeli friends mad at Natanyahu and the IDF. There are no winners until this stops and the hostages are released and the civilian killings end. There are only corrupt governments right now
WW3 with NK was never going to happen. People talk like North Korea actually wants to fuck with America, itās literally a scrawny guy at the bar talking like he could fight an MMA fighter.
A lot of misinformation in this thread (as usual for this subreddit). The iron dome does not intercept ballistic missiles. Israel has Arrow, David's Sling, and Patriot missile systems for ballistic missile interceptions. In general, ballistic missiles are much harder to intercept.
Interception also depends on the ELM-2040 Over the Horizon Radar, which bounces 6 to 30 MHz radar (high Frequency / HF) off the ionosphere to detect and track missiles over the horizon. HF is affected by solar activity, there was a solar flare and high solar activity today, and a radio blackout. So I am wondering if solar activity degraded the perfomance of Israel's the OTR.
1000 IQ play by Iran if they were timing the attack in coordination with the Sun. High solar flare activity has been noted for weeks at this point since we're in a very active period of the cycle. They may have just been waiting for the right location/intensity. Sounds like the Sun is a co-conspirator in this attack. Does the Sun have oil? Maybe the Sun needs some freedom.
The word "ballistic" means different things in the colloquial or physics sense than it does in the military sense. For missiles, it usually refers to a projectile that launches into the Earth's atmosphere and comes down at a very steep descent angle and high speed, making interception difficult. Iron Dome is meant to intercept small, simple rockets and slow-flying drones with easily calculable trajectories that are easier to intercept.
Yes there are. Cruise missiles are a pretty well known type. They do not leave the atmosphere and usually ācruiseā relatively low. The Iron Dome can take them out. The Iron Dome frequently has been shown on videos taking out the unguided rockets that Hezbollah launches into Israel from time to time.
Israel has other air defenses that can take out ballistic missiles, such as Davidās Sling or the Arrow system, depending on the type of ballistic missile.
That area could also be void of any infrastructure or houses, thsu those rockets were given low-priority to be intercepted, thus they were able to get past the Iron Dome defenses; as they were not important enough.
Agreed. I'm not a missile defense expert, but I've read today's ballistic missiles are different and faster than those Iran shot back in April. If true, it could also explain why seemingly more of them made it through the iron dome.
The iron dome obviously isnt designed for ballistic smart missiles.
It designed for fire and forget missiles so it can calculate the path and shoot it down when needed.
This is totally different and the ballistic missiles are much faster.
I am so against this war and I feel sorry for the innocent but at the same time. Celebrating a rapist on TV and taking your family to watch bombs drop on another country really makes it hard to be sympathetic.
For anyone wondering why the iron dome isn't intercepting these - this was a ballistic missile attack and the iron dome was designed to protect highly populated areas from rocket attacks.
Rockets and ballistic missiles are very different. Israel does have other systems to protect against ballistic missiles, but those systems are going to be more limited in coverage than the iron dome is vs rockets.
Overall, the intercept rate vs a rocket is way higher than vs a ballistic missile.
If you're wondering how Israel stopped Iran's April attack, that attack features a number of drones and other easier to intercept missiles, with some estimates suggesting only 15 or so ballistic missiles. That attack was also heavily telegraphed. Israel had U.S. support in defending against it.
This was a less telegraphed attack with likely way more ballistic missiles, although I guess we'll see as more facts come up.
Thanks, i was wondering if the people of gaza had this for over a year while actually getting bombed , not just getting a scare like us.
Edit: i am palestinian , but I do not live in gaza or the west bank, i live in occupied jerusalem. What i am saying is that we who are not getting bombed got scared, imagine getting bombed like this for more than 20 years by israel like gaza. Here we might get assaulted by israeli police or army and there have been some close encounters that left me, my wife, and newborn shaking.
So sad to see. Probably an ignorant question, but if these are landing in Israel, is it just too many missiles for the iron dome? Sincere question, thank you.
Iron dome is pretty useless for taking down ballistic missiles, it's meant for cruise missiles and artillery. They might take out a few with iron dome but it can't stop most of them.
They also have David's Sling, which is a much better match for ballistic missiles, but it can't stop them all either. They generally track trajectories and only focus on stopping the ones heading for population centers (which is how there are 0 Israeli casualties despite all these impacts)
Regardless of what one thinks of either side, there's something incredibly chilling about seeing hypersonic missiles so effortlessly enter anyone's airspace.
We are on the precipice of another World War and I'm not shitting you, we should be concerned as a human race.
"Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that all to the poor, yeah
Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun"
-Black Sabbath
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u/204gaz00 5d ago
I wonder how many missiles were launched this time. There seems to be a lot more making contact with the ground unlike last time