Koreans eyeing Iron Dome

Iron Dome, which uses guided missiles to shoot down the Katyusha-style short-range rockets favored by Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas, has scored around a 90% success rate in the month-old Gaza war, Israeli officials and U.S. observers say.

Rafael CEO Yedidia Yaari said the system’s performance had fuelled foreign interest in it, including by South Korea, which is in an armed standoff with North Korea: “South Korea is very worried not only about rockets, but other things as well ... You can certainly include them in the club of interested countries,” Yaari told Israel’s Army Radio, saying Rafael representatives had visited Seoul to promote Iron Dome.

Yaari did not give details on how advanced such a deal with South Korea may be. Rafael has not made public any foreign sales so far, saying it was giving priority to supplying Iron Domes to Israel, which has fielded nine out of a planned total of 12 interceptor units. Each Iron Dome battery costs around $50 million, and each interceptor missile between $30,000 and $50,000. Participating in Iron Dome’s production are Israeli defense contractors Elisra Group, Israel Aerospace Industries, and U.S. defense contractor Raytheon.