Successful Missile Defense Test

This time in Israel. Israel has been developing one of the most comprehensive missile defense systems in the world, a multi-layer arrangement designed to counter different types of missile threats. One of the major components, Iron Dome, recently passed successful tests against "Qassam rockets, Grad rockets, and mortar shells." 

According to the article in the Christian Science Monitor, the system can distinguish between threats worth countering, and those which can be safely ignored.

One of the advantages of the Iron Dome system is that it can distinguish worthwhile targets - missiles headed for a populated area – from those destined to land in an open field, for example, and not worth trying to knock out of the sky. In wartime, such a tool could be crucial.

So rather than overloading the system by trying to intercept everything, it can focus only on significant threats, giving those a greater probability of interception.

Israeli advances in missile defense are good news for the U.S. The Iron Dome System is scheduled for activation this year. The Israelis already face a real, ongoing missile threat. Their tests and actual operation data should be invaluable to our own missile defense projects.