This is a value for value post: see the explanation in the footer.
Amazing Pictures
Yesterday, just around noon Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired off a large salvo of rockets vaguely aimed at Jerusalem. This prompted me to tweet:
https://twitter.com/brianoflondon/status/1656960065062989824
- brianoflondon
Indigenous people don't fire vaguely guided rockets toward their "third holiest site".
A short while later we got the most amazing pictures I've ever seen of a non-test use of Iron Dome and specifically the Tamir interception rocket.
The first place I saw this tweeted out by a former IDF Spokesperson who I know personally, prompted me to not believe it to be a real photograph. But soon I saw more tweets with higher quality images and attribution to photographer Gilad Kafir.
What do we see here?
The closing speed of the Tamir interceptor is probably over Mach 2 (5000 KPH or 3000 MPH) and accelerating (as you can see it is powered right up to intercept) and the inbound rocket is probably a little below Mach 1. The interceptor is flying from the top of the frame with an exhaust flame and trail. It is heading toward the Palestinian rocket which by this point is just flying in a parabola having stopped firing its engine during ascent.
We can't tell which way is up in this image and the most likely positioning is that this was nearly overhead for the photographer. The Palestinian rocket is probably falling and the Tamir is probably climbing, but both are flying horizontally to some degree too.
How big is that explosion
Just to give you a scale for that boom, I've heard it many times. When the interception is close (a few km) it shakes the apartment and windows. When it is far away which you can tell because the sound can arrive 1 minute after the flash meaning around 20km distant, it can be like moderate thunder.
Just on Thursday night there was a concert for 40,000 people in the park about 1.5km from me. I can hear these concerts clearly enough from my balcony to recognise the songs. During this concert there were a couple of interceptions probably 23km to the south. An acquaintance of mine was at the concert and wrote this account. I recorded the interceptions and the rumble over a minute later.
The new normal
Unfortunately this has been an infrequent normal for so long we kinda get past it. It has been infinitely worse further south than for us in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. And it is awful when it fails and an 80 year old woman dies in her apartment as happened two days ago. Only then do we understand how effective it's been for a decade.
Meme
I couldn't help it, this image needed to be memed. The words come from this timeless Babylon Bee story from a couple of years ago. Yes, I turned the image around because it just makes more sense to people to have the incoming terrorist rocket falling and the interceptor rising.
https://twitter.com/brianoflondon/status/1656984235348054018
- brianoflondon
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