close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • What are the missiles in Iran’s arsenal and how is Israel countering them?
    news

    What are the missiles in Iran’s arsenal and how is Israel countering them?

    Vaseline Posted on



    CNN
    —

    Iran unleashed its largest-ever attack on Israel, firing 180 ballistic missiles late Tuesday, most of which were apparently intercepted by anti-missile defense systems of Israel, the United States and Jordan, the governments of those countries said.

    The airstrike, far more serious than a similar attack in April, has raised the stakes at what is already an extremely tense moment in the Middle East as a dangerous regional conflict continues to unfold.

    Here’s a look at Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities and the defense systems used by Israeli and other forces in the region.

    Tehran has thousands of ballistic and cruise missiles of varying ranges, according to a 2021 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Missile Threat Project.

    Exact numbers per type of missile are unknown. But U.S. Air Force Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told Congress in 2023 that Iran had “more than 3,000” ballistic missiles, according to a report this year from the Iran Watch website of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.

    Ballistic missile trajectories take them beyond or close to the limits of the Earth’s atmosphere before the warhead’s payload breaks free from the rocket that launched it and plunges back into the atmosphere and onto its target.

    thumb 1.jpg

    See a first look at the damage caused by Iran’s missile attack on Israel

    Weapons experts who analyzed verified social media videos on the ground told CNN that Iran used variants of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile in the latest attack on Israel.

    The Shahab-3 is the basis for all Iranian intermediate-range ballistic missiles that use liquid propellant, said Patrick Senft, research coordinator at Armament Research Services (ARES).

    The Missile Threat Project says the Shahab-3 entered service in 2003, can carry a warhead of 760 to 1,200 kilograms and can be fired from both mobile launchers and silos.

    Iran Watch says the latest variants of the Shahab-3, the Ghadr and Emad missiles, have an accuracy of nearly 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet) of their intended targets.

    Iranian media reported that Tehran used a new missile, the Fattah-1, in the attacks. Tehran describes the Fattah-1 as a “hysonic” missile – meaning it has a speed of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound (about 3,800 miles per hour, 6,100 kilometers per hour).

    But analysts point out that almost all ballistic missiles reach hypersonic speed during their flights, especially when diving towards their targets.

    The term “hysonic” is often used to refer to so-called hypersonic hover vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles, highly advanced weapons that can maneuver at hypersonic speed in the Earth’s atmosphere. That makes it extremely difficult to shoot such weapons.

    Fattah-1 is neither, according to Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, who wrote on the subject last year.

    Hinz says the Fattah-1 appears to have a warhead on a “maneuverable reentry vehicle,” allowing it to make adjustments to avoid missile defenses during a short portion of its dive toward its target.

    Still, this capability would be an improvement over previous Iranian missiles, Hinz says.

    But analysts were skeptical that Iran would have used the new missile for the first time on Tuesday evening.

    “It’s one of their newest ballistic missiles, and they have a lot to lose if they use it,” said Trevor Ball, a former senior explosives technician for the U.S. Army.

    “Israel would get a sense of its capabilities just by using it. There is also the chance that it may not function, giving Israel an even better idea of ​​its capabilities. They get free propaganda and risk nothing by saying it was used.”

    Israel has a range of systems to block attacks of all kinds, from ballistic missiles with atmospheric trajectories to low-flying cruise missiles and rockets.

    Much attention has been paid to the highly effective Iron Dome system, used to combat incoming missiles and artillery weapons.

    But the Iron Dome is the bottom layer of Israel’s missile defense and is not the system that would have been used to counter the ballistic missiles launched on Tuesday evening, the country’s Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) said.

    The next rung on the missile defense ladder is David’s Sling, which according to IMDO protects against short- and medium-range threats.

    <p>Fmr. Defense Secretary William Cohen joins The Lead</p> <p>” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=”this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)” onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1080″ width=”1920″/></picture> </div> </div></div> </p></div> </div> <div class=

    Former Defense Minister: Israel May Target Iran’s Nuclear Facilities

    David’s Sling, a joint project between Israel’s RAFAEL Advanced Defense System and US defense giant Raytheon, uses Stunner and SkyCeptor kinetic hit-to-kill interceptors to take out targets up to 300 kilometers away, according to the US Missile Threat Project CSIS.

    Above David’s Sling are the Israeli Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, developed in collaboration with the United States.

    According to the CSIS, the Arrow 2 uses fragmentation warheads to destroy incoming ballistic missiles in their final phase – as they dive towards their targets – in the upper atmosphere.

    About 180 ballistic missiles had been launched against Israel from Iran and intercepted in the skies over Israel on October 1, 2024.

    The Arrow 2 has a range of 90 kilometers and a maximum altitude of 52 kilometers, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, which called the Arrow 2 an upgrade of the U.S. Patriot missile defense that Israel once used in this role.

    Meanwhile, the Arrow 3 uses hit-to-kill technology to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in space before re-entering the atmosphere en route to targets.

    During Tuesday evening’s attack, the US military said it fired at least 12 anti-missile munitions at the incoming Iranian missiles.

    The U.S. response came from the Navy’s guided-missile destroyers USS Cole and USS Bulkeley, which were operating in the eastern Mediterranean, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

    The Pentagon has not specified which interceptors are used, but the U.S. destroyers are equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system, with interceptor missiles that can strike and destroy incoming ballistic missiles in their mid or terminal stages.

    The Jordanian air force also intercepted Iranian missiles on Tuesday evening, a Jordanian official said, but no details were given.

    During an Iranian attack on Israel in April, Israeli and American warplanes shot down a large number of incoming Iranian munitions. But Iran carried out that attack largely with slower-moving drones, which were much easier for the fighter jets to intercept than the ballistic warheads that fell vertically on targets in Israel.

    CNN’s Gianluca Mezzofiore and Haley Britzky contributed to this report.

    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like