In the past 24 hours alone, hundreds of rockets and mortars have been fired from the Gaza Strip at cities and communities in southern and central Israel. Hundreds of Iron Dome interceptor missiles have been launched to down them, and in many cases saved lives. Nevertheless, Iron Dome cannot provide hermetic protection on its own, and the casualties and wounded in this latest round of escalation are proof of that.
The cost of a single Iron Dome interception is about $80,000. The cost of the batteries themselves and their operation is also high. If we need to use the David's Sling system or Arrow 2 missiles, the average cost of a single interception will jump to about $2 million.
It takes a long time to rebuild the supply of interceptor missiles because the manufacturing process is relatively slow. On the other hand, the terrorist groups use rockets that are manufactured quickly, at a negligible cost. In effect, our enemies currently have such large stockpiles of firepower that they can handle a long war without resupplying.
Using the expensive Iron Dome missiles to intercept massive quantities of cheap rockets and barrages of mortars is economically inefficient, even though it effectively takes down most of the rockets that pose a danger to human life.
Given all this, an effective solution would be to upgrade our defenses against rockets and missiles with a system based on a laser cannon. We should consider it.
Let's look at the numbers. The cost of an interception using laser rays is only about $2,000 – some 2% of the cost of an Iron Dome interception and a fraction of the cost of an interception using David's Sling or the Arrow 2.
However, do such efficient systems exist? Northrop Grumman offered us the SkyGuard system, which was developed at Israel's request and with U.S. research and funding, 12 years ago. The system was designed to facilitate affordable and logistically efficient answers to massive onslaughts of rockets and mortars. It could be made operational in two to three years. In effect, it could already be operational if the IDF had made the decision to acquire it.
Eight of these systems, which intercept any threat within 25 seconds, could block everything fired from the Gaza Strip, including mortars and all types of rockets – even long-range ones – immediately after they are launched. If every launching area is covered by three of these systems, each one could take down about seven threats simultaneously, and it would be possible to intercept a barrage of up to 24 rockets at once.
Using this system in conjunction with Iron Dome could eradicate all low-level threats and would eliminate the need for immense financial outlay on attacking Gaza, as well as allow residents of southern Israel to go about their day-to-day lives.
The situation on the northern front, against Hezbollah, is much worse. Defense and security officials think that in the next war with Lebanon, some 2,000 rockets and missiles will be fired at Israel daily, some of which will have precision capabilities. In a scenario like that, we could expect hundreds of direct hits per day of fighting. Therefore, we need to do everything possible to equip ourselves with SkyGuard.
Eli Bar-On is an economist who specializes in the analysis of defense systems and performance research.
Eli Meron is a physicist and chemist and a former senior official in the Israeli defense establishment.
