TEL AVIV—Israel is preparing for a coordinated attack from Iran and its allies that will present the biggest test yet for a multilayered air defense system that has had to expand far beyond the country’s vaunted Iron Dome system.
In the past decade, the U.S.-Israel-developed Iron Dome has become the world’s leading system for shooting down short-range rockets, reducing the threat from weapons fired by Washington-designated terrorist groups like Hamas to population centers.
Iran and Lebanon-based Hezbollah’s capabilities are another matter.
Iran has drones and ballistic missiles that Iron Dome isn’t designed to stop. And Hezbollah has an arsenal with tens of thousands of mortars, rockets and precision-guided missiles that could threaten to overwhelm the country’s defenses.
