Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — An Israeli defense major has sought endorsements for its
new missile and rocket defense system.

Israel’s state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has been lobbying
mayors of communities near the Gaza Strip to submit endorsements for the
Iron Dome. Rafael has produced and deployed two Iron Dome batteries to
defend against missiles and rockets fired from the Gaza Strip in 2011.

“The system has proven in the short time since it became operational its capabilities in the large number of interceptions conducted with a high success rates,” Rafael chief executive officer Yedidya Ya’ari wrote in a letter to more than 20 mayors of southern communities.

Iron Dome has been deployed around the cities of Ashkelon and Beersheba. The company claimed an interception rate of more than 90 percent as it launched a marketing campaign abroad.

Rafael has also been lobbying for Iron Dome to receive the Israel
Defense Prize. The campaign has been supported by some mayors and criticized by others who assert that Iron Dome failed to protect their communities during the two mini-wars with the Hamas regime in 2011.

“Endorsing an award for a system that fails to help the residents I
represent means betraying their trust, my public duty and moral obligation
to do everything in my power to protect them,” Eshkol Council head Haim
Yalin said.

Rafael has acknowledged that Iron Dome was unable to intercept mortars,
a key weapon used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad against Israeli communities
near the Gaza Strip. At the same time, cities located more than 25
kilometers from the Gaza Strip, particularly Ashdod and Beersheba, were said
to have been protected by Iron Dome.

“They [Iron Dome developers] are worthy of an Israel Defense Prize both
on the security level and for daring and imagination reflected in this
ground-breaking technological development,” Beersheba Mayor Reuven
Danilovitch said.

The Israel Air Force, which operates Iron Dome, has determined a
requirement for at least 12 batteries. Each Iron Dome interceptor, designed
to destroy incoming rockets with a range of up to 70 kilometers, was said to
cost about $80,000.

“The short time in which the system was developed breaks the record in
the history of the development of missile systems of this scale in Israel
and the world,” Rafael’s Ya’ari wrote.

  Ashdod, Beersheba, Gaza Strip, Haim Yalin, Israel Defense Prize, Israeli firm lobbies mayors near Gaza to endorse anti-missile system, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Yedidya Ya’ari