Iron dome missile defence system belongs to which of the following countries ?
1. France
2. United States of America
3. Israel
Select the correct answer from the code given below :
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UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, Only 3, Israel. Iron Dome is an Israeli mobile all-weather air-defence system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems together with Israel Aerospace Industries. It was declared operational and first deployed near Beersheba on 27 March 2011, and on 7 April 2011 it made its first successful interception of a rocket fired from Gaza. It is built to knock down short-range rockets and artillery shells launched from between 4 and 70 kilometres away, and — the feature that makes it affordable to run — it engages only those projectiles whose trajectory would bring them down on an Israeli populated area, letting the rest fall in open ground. Neither France nor the United States owns or fields it as its own system.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Neither France nor the United States built Iron Dome. France has no role in the programme at all, and the American role — described under option (b) — is money and manufacturing support for an Israeli system, not authorship of it.  (b) This is the option the question is built to catch, because the American involvement is real and large: the United States contributed about US$1.6 billion to Iron Dome between 2011 and 2021, with a further US$1 billion approved by Congress in 2022, and since July 2014 Raytheon has been the major US partner co-producing major components of the Tamir interceptor missile. But funding a system and manufacturing parts of it is not the same as the system belonging to you — Iron Dome was designed by Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries and is fielded by Israel.  (d) France has nothing to do with Iron Dome. French ground-based air defence rests on the Franco-Italian SAMP/T system with Aster missiles, a completely separate programme.

Concept: Modern air and missile defence is layered: each layer is tuned to a different threat speed, altitude and range, because one interceptor cannot economically cover them all. Iron Dome is Israel's bottom layer, meant for short-range rockets and mortar/artillery fire from 4 to 70 km. Above it sit David's Sling for medium-range threats and the Arrow family against ballistic missiles. A single Iron Dome unit is a battery, not one launcher: a tracking radar, a battle-management and weapon-control centre that computes where each incoming rocket will land, and launchers firing Tamir interceptors. Because the control centre only fires at rockets predicted to hit a populated area, most incoming rounds are deliberately ignored.

State PCS 2025 Q27 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q27 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer