The IDF has deployed a version of its Iron Dome Missile Defense System that can be fired from the deck of a cruising navy ship to protect the country’s offshore gas platforms. The decision to develop and deploy the advance anti-rocket interceptor system comes after the discovery of sizeable natural gas deposits off its Mediterranean coast. While the biggest fields are far from shore, the gas flows to platforms in shallower waters that can be seen from the southern Israeli coast, putting them in range of the kinds of rockets fired by Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip.
Iron Dome batteries have proven capable of shooting down around 90 percent of Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza, according to Israel and the United States, which has helped bankroll the system. Until now Iron Dome had been a static system that was only fired from land. It has needed a series of software and algorithm adjustments to help it meet the navy’s requirements.