One such effort is Lockheed Martin’s Area Defense Anti-Munitions (ADAM) system, a directed-energy defense against close-in threats.

“The ADAM system is designed specifically to provide an affordable capability against the rapidly proliferating threats [from] rockets and unmanned aerial systems. Lockheed Martin based the design on commercial hardware paired with our laser beam control architecture and software to provide the performance needed for these types of threats without the cost and time required for full custom development,” Graham said.

“Some of the other prototype systems under development are more powerful, complex and expensive than the ADAM system, [but] we believe the ADAM system can help to address a number of the emerging military service requirements for defense against existing short-range threats. The system can track targets at a range of more than 5 kilometers (km) and can destroy targets at a range of up to 2 km. It can be used as a standalone system to defend against improvised rockets, such as Qassam rockets [used by Hamas], and it can engage UAVs when cued by an external sensor.”

In the last half of 2012, Lockheed Martin reported that in tests, ADAM’s 10-kilowatt fiber laser had successfully engaged a UAV in flight at a range of nearly 1.7 km and destroyed four small-caliber rocket targets in simulated flight at a range of approximately 2 km.

As the nation most frequently attacked by rockets and missiles, Israel is working hard to perfect its own version of a layered defense. Current threats range from short-range rockets fired from the West Bank and Lebanon to potential attacks involving longer range, more advanced missiles from other neighboring states, to the growing threat of a ballistic missile attack involving weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) from Iran.

Israel has heavily employed its new Iron Dome system in recent months, reporting an 85 percent success rate against hundreds of short-range rockets fired by militants in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon during November 2012 alone. Developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Iron Dome’s Tamir missile is designed to intercept and destroy rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 4 km to 70 km with trajectories that would take them into populated areas, as well as aircraft at altitudes up to 32,600 feet. Israel is working on upgrades that would enable Iron Dome to increase its interception range to 250 km as well as engage rockets coming from two directions simultaneously.

The follow-up to Iron Dome is David’s Sling, with interceptors capable of destroying targets at ranges up to 330 km and providing protection against longer-range missiles known or believed to be in Hezbollah’s arsenal. The current missile in David’s Sling is the Raytheon-built Stunner, which can be redirected in flight to account for any changes in the incoming missile’s trajectory.

David’s Sling bridges the range gap between Iron Dome and another component of Israel’s current TMD; the Arrow, jointly funded and developed by the United States and Israel since 1986, although only Israel has deployed it. The current Arrow 2 Block 4 is produced by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Boeing, with oversight from the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the American MDA. The transportable system comprises a hypersonic interceptor, an AESA (active electronically scanned array) radar, and command and control (C2) and launch control centers.

While an Arrow 3 is working toward initial operating capability in 2014, Israel has announced plans for a Block 5 system that would merge the lower-tier Arrow 2 and exoatmospheric Arrow 3 into a single national missile defense system. With new ground and airborne sensors and an upgraded C2 system, Block 5 is intended to increase the area that can be defended by Arrow by 50 percent.

Slightly smaller, half the weight and faster than Arrow 2, the Arrow 3 is deployed in batteries of 24 to 48 missiles, with each battery expected to intercept salvos of more than five ballistic missiles within 30 seconds. Its ability to intercept long-range missiles outside the atmosphere is primarily seen as a defense against Iran, which has declared an official policy to destroy the Jewish state, as it pushes to complete nuclear weapons development and may be able to mount a nuclear warhead on missiles capable of hitting Israel.

The range limitations of a given missile defense system are further complicated by the different speeds at which different types of attacking missiles fly. The unsophisticated rockets used by Hamas are comparatively slow – the next level of threat can fly more than four times as fast, while the velocity of an ICBM is about three times greater than that. The faster the target, the more difficult it is to “hit a bullet with a bullet.”

Nonetheless, the successes reported for Iron Dome have significantly boosted the concept of a kinetic-kill missile defense. In a column in Commentary magazine during the November barrage against Israel, for example, Council on Foreign Relations defense policy specialist Max Boot wrote: “the latest Gaza war is only a few days old, but already one conclusion can be drawn: Missile defense works.”