On the saturation of Iron Dome. "The cost of interception is high. The cost of the interceptor missile is about $40,000-50,000. Furthermore, in some cases, two interceptor missiles are fired at one target, which further raises the cost of interception." inss.org.il/wp-content/upl… 
"The system has a “saturation point.” It is capable of engaging a certain (unpublished) number of targets at the same time, and no more. Additional rockets fired in a crowded salvo could succeed in breaching defenses and cause damage" inss.org.il/wp-content/upl…
On Iron Dome's utility: "missile defenses do create conditions for enhanced freedom of action for decision makers–defense systems ensure that they have time, and are not compelled to resort automatically to preemption and retaliation"
inss.org.il/wp-content/upl…
inss.org.il/wp-content/upl…
Israeli official to RAND: Iron Dome “a blessing because it buys [us] time, but Israel needs an excuse for why they are killing Palestinians in operations..When Iron Dome works so well & so few Israelis die, Israel loses the justification for the operation” rand.org/blog/2017/11/i…
"With Iron Dome reducing the risk to population centers, there was less pressure on political leaders to escalate the conflict .... In retrospect, analysts worry that the shift to a strategy of attrition [in 2014] denied Israel a decisive victory" rand.org/blog/2017/11/i…
Saturation attacks are not new. In 2014 "Hamas also attempted to overwhelm Iron Dome batteries with coordinated salvos, and enlisted regional allies to fire rockets from Lebanon, Syria, and the Sinai, forcing Iron Dome to cover a greater area ..." rand.org/blog/2017/11/i…
"Because so much about Iron Dome is classified, information provided by the Israeli military cannot be independently verified. Analyses performed by outside experts—both those questioning Iron Dome’s efficacy and those defending...claims—are inconclusive" jstor.org/stable/pdf/res…
"As the [Iron Dome] radar is forced to dwell on more rockets in this cycle, it has less time to scan for new objects and has to wait longer before returning to each rocket, which lessens the quality of the trajectory calculation." jstor.org/stable/pdf/res…
A lesson for Hezbollah contingencies. "If there simply aren’t enough Iron Dome batteries to provide protection to military & critical infrastructure while also protecting population centers, the IDF will be forced to pull coverage from population centers" jstor.org/stable/pdf/res…
"Hamas/Hezbollah certainly understand role that Iron Dome has played in the Israeli narrative of its wars & would be quick to exploit Iron Dome’s perceived or real weaknesses for propaganda purposes and to claim to its own people that it achieved victory" jstor.org/stable/pdf/res…
"According to Israeli gov't sources, every day Iron Dome helps to avert war saves appprox 240 million shekels in military expenditures. Moreover, the system’s interceptor is significantly less than the potential damage...in a high-density residential area" fdd.org/wp-content/upl…
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