Whats wrong with Israels Iron Dome ABM defense system?
By Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst WASHINGTON — What is wrong with Israel’s Iron Dome very-short-range anti-ballistic missile defense system? It was supposed to go into service in mid-2010 to defend the north and south of the country against the already very real threat of intense rocket bombardment from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite Party of God in Southern Lebanon, and from Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement in Gaza. But Iron Dome is now months, possibly years behind schedule, and critics say the very assumptions it was based on were unsustainable from the very start. The latest annual report by Israel’s State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss has documented endless delays, indecision, go-it-alone chaotic planning and sheer bureaucratic incompetence by the Israeli air force and the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak over the past three years. Iron Dome’s cost has soared by 40 percent over only eight months, Haaretz reported last w
