Iron Dome

Israel has successfully upgraded its Iron Dome missile-defense system, the Defense Ministry said, without elaborating on the specific improvements.

A series of tests was performed to “widen the capacity and improve the performance” of the system, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. It added that Israel faces “an unprecedented array of threats” presumably ranging from mortars to long-range missiles from a variety of origins, The Times of Israel reported on Friday.

The Iron Dome system was developed, after much nay-saying, to counter the rocket threat from Gaza, a territory from which Hamas and other organizations have fired since 2001 upward of 15,200 projectiles at Israel.

During last summer’s war in and around Gaza, Hamas and other Palestinian factions fired 4,594 rockets at Israel. Of those, the system chose to intercept 799 projectiles –if is designed to focus only on missiles deemed threatening to populated areas — hitting 735 and missing 64, according to a Channel 2 report.

Israel, while pushing Iron Dome’s larger cousin, David’s Sling, to operational status, has also increased the performance envelope of the existing system.

Nonetheless, particularly in a war against Hezbollah, which possesses more rockets and missiles, and which is expected to open a future conflict with a blitz, the army has been preparing the public for a less stellar performance.