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.
Hamas rockets are also ballistic missiles, just smaller and cruder ones.
That said, those appear to be missing, so would they even intercept, given the risk that intercepting a miss would result in debris which could easily hit something?
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.
Well Israhell has better technology with the missiles but they also don’t care where they hit, as long as they hit civilians but pretend it’s Hamas
The iron dome was doing it's job and intercepting a lot of them, but it wasn't able to get them all. I guess they defended against the ones that were most critical and left the others to hit parts of the city that weren't as important or devastating.
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.
What about an air-to-air missile? Those are powered through reaching the target and are definitely NOT cruise missiles nor are they ballistic. Like one jet shooting another.
While you're technically right that all missiles are "ballistic" in the same sense that all bullets are ballistic, there's a distinction you're missing here. A "ballistic" missile is one that follows a ballistic path intentionally as part of its design. They up go, and then down toward the target. A non-ballistic missile like an AA missile, although it is technically ballistic, does not deliberately follow a ballistic path even though some of them are unpowered for some portion of their flight. It flies as direct a course as possible. Gravity is only a small part of the forces affecting its flight path, compared to a medium or long range ballistic missile which intentionally gets as high as possible and falls back down.
Regular missiles apparently are powered throughout their flight.
This isn't true either, missiles are often powered only for part of the flight as well. However, a ballistic missile flies a ballistic trajectory, meaning it goes up in the air and then falls back down by gravity. A non-ballistic missile will boost directly toward (or in front of) the target and then coast toward it at high speed. For example, anti-air missiles will fly toward the target and coast into its path, then explode when they meet.
It’s highly likely a lot of these are their new medium range Fattah Hypersonic missiles.
They are 2 stage meaning they take off as one piece then the warhead top cone separates with its own rocket engine becoming even faster before impact. Think like the Gemini space rockets. These would be very fast and likely able to defeat the Dome when used as a cluster type attack.
These missiles along with what’s already been described here were unveiled in 2023 by Iran.
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u/204gaz00 Oct 01 '24
I wonder how many missiles were launched this time. There seems to be a lot more making contact with the ground unlike last time