More information on the Iranian attack and the performance of both its missiles and Israel’s anti-missile systems, has now been provided by Elder of Ziyon. You can find his reflections here: “It was one of the largest such combined attacks in history. Many Iranian missiles failed. And other Day 2 observations on the weekend events.” Elder of Ziyon, April 15, 2024:
An Israeli newspaper summed up the Iranian “Operation Truthful Promise” as “The Iranian lion roared like a cat.”
As we get more information, we learn that the attack was in most ways larger than anything Russia has mounted against Ukraine.
The extent of the attack was one of the largest seen in modern warfare. Russia’s opening “shock and awe” barrage on the first day of the invasion of Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, included between 160 and 200 cruise missiles and ballistic missiles – against a country more than 20 times the area of Israel.
Russia first used Iranian-made Shahad drones in conjunction with a missile attack on October 10, 2022, a barrage aimed at Ukraine’s infrastructure,. This included a total of 84 missiles and 24 UAVs. Only about half of the Russian missiles were intercepted.
This compares to 185 drones, 110 ballistic missiles and 30 cruise missiles launched by Iran towards Israel.
Iran’s attack on Israel on April 13 was far larger than any of the attacks by Russia on Ukraine. It was one of the largest one-day aerial attacks “in modern warfare,” possibly larger than any since World War II.
Iranian media is claiming a “clean victory,” saying that their ballistic missiles landed exactly where they were intended….
Apparently the Iranian government is hoping its people don’t listen to the Farsi-language broadcasts of Voice of America, or the BBC, or look online to discover the truth: that close to 99% of its drones and missiles never reached their targets, as they were either shot down or misfired or exploded in the air just after launch. Not a single drone or cruise missile landed in Israel. Several ballistic missiles did manage to get through to hit Israel, but only one caused slight damage, creating one easily reparable crater at a runway at the Nevatim Air Base. Another missile landed harmlessly on a road. That was it. As for casualties, there was only one — an Arab Israeli child who was wounded by falling shrapnel. That was the extent of the damage Iran inflicted on Israel and its people.
Just one of Iran’s many misfired ballistic missiles, exploding in the air while still in Iran, caused more damage to Iran than all the drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles combined did to Israel. What a spectacular failure this attack has turned out to be.
Israel understands that even one ballistic missile, if it lands on Tel Aviv or Haifa or Jerusalem, would cause large numbers of civilian casualties. This time Israel was lucky: only one ballistic missile both entered Israel and managed to hit a runway in the desert airbase at Nevatim, leaving a crater but missing both planes and personnel. The IDF might not always be so lucky. Iran might be able next time to launch many more ballistic missiles able to penetrate Israel’s airspace; Iran’s targeting might be more accurate, and deadly, in a future attack.
In 2022 Iran announced, to much fanfare, that it had manufactured hypersonic missiles than could not be stopped by known interceptors. They also claimed to have upgraded those missiles last year. Iran is now claiming that every hypersonic missile it shot at Israel successfully hit their targets.…
No one knows what part, if any, of Iran’s boast about having hypersonic missiles is true. Nor do we know if Iran’s claim that “every one of its hypersonic missiles” hit its target is true. Since exactly one Iranian missile hit a targeted site inside Israel — the Nevatim Air Base — we may conclude that, at most, one “hypersonic missile” did manage to hit its intended target. Is this reason for Iran to boast?
Iran gave plenty of warning — nearly two weeks — that it was going to launch an attack on Israel in retaliation for the attack that killed IRGC commander Mohamed Reza Zahedi in Damascus. This gave Israel’s allies time to prepare for such an attack. In particular, the U.S. had time to move another battleship into the area, and to prepare its pilots and fighter jets, stationed both on ships in the Red Sea and in bases in Iraq and Syria, to shoot down anything launched from Iran at Israel. Another attack by Iran might just come out of the blue, without any warning.
Iran will not be deterred from further attacks on Israel just because this one went so badly for it. The only way to dissuade Iran is to raise the cost of such attacks, far beyond the loss of having 99% of the drones and missiles launched by Iran either shot down, or explode, because defective, over Iran itself. Israel needs to inflict great damage on Iran’s weapons and military infrastructure, Iranian airbases, storehouses of drones, ballistic and cruise missile plants and warehouses, and nuclear facilities, should all be targeted by Israeli missiles and planes. In the afterglow of Iran’s massive attack, sympathy for Israel remains high but it will not last forever, and should be exploited by the IDF to do what, sooner or later, it will have to do to Iran, if Israel is to survive.
somehistory says
It isn’t over. Look at a map of those nations which attacked, or plan a future attack, against Israel. The missiles came, basically, out of the North.
Ezekiel 38-39
Unknown guy says
If war breaks out between Israel and Iran, don’t see Israel winning the war without american support and aid. Looking at the current scenario, I don’t think majority of American public would support funding for Israel. This is why, I believe Israel should start to reduce its dependency on the Usa. Start building new alliances with other countries that do not interfere in Israeli internal politics.
dumbledoresarmy says
Buy Israeli! They make good stuff – everything from food products to tech products. If you know anywhere that stocks Israeli products… buy Israeli! Just one small way to give them strength to resist the monstrous, genocidal Jihad that threatens not only Israel but also … every single non-Muslim on earth.