So a complex attack was launched by Iran
against Israel
that used, according to the Israelis,
some
331 projectiles of varying types.
So we had 110 ballistic missiles.
We had 185 drones, which are really being used as
cheap cruise missiles.
Then we had the cruise missiles themselves,
that all of these had the range to be able
to hit Israel
some at least 1200 kilometers and further.
So the drones themselves have seen a lot of use
in Ukraine.
So Shahed 136, it has a top speed of
185 kilometers, which makes it slow for World War
2 planes, let alone some 80 years later.
So it's slow as a small,
small warhead, about 50 kilograms,
and this would have had to have been launched.
All of these would have had to have been launched
about
7 to 8 hours before they are intended to strike
their target.
So this would have given everybody some warnings and something
was up.
It was 185 of these slowly made their way towards
Israel and within an hour or two of the intended
target being hit,
you would have had to have launched the cruise missiles
as well,
which would have taken an hour or two to fly.
They fly at high subsonic speeds,
like 7 to 800 kilometres an hour,
and then 5 minutes before you want to hit your
target you're going to be launching the ballistic missiles.
Now these are going to be moving
at great speed, several 1000 kilometres an hour.
They'd only take a few minutes to get to Israel
and would actually leave the Earth's atmosphere before they plunge
back in,
heading towards their target. Now,
Israel has one of the most sophisticated air defence systems
in the world.
It has poured billions into research along with its partner,
the United States, both of whom have cooperated extensively on
ballistic missile defence.
So you have several layers.
The first layer is Iron Dome.
It's designed to take out rudimentary missiles and a lot
of the drones that we've been talking about that would
be supplemented by Air Force jets on combat patrol searching
for targets, be able to,
once they detect them, destroy them
near the ground. Then you have this mid level tier
which is the same sort of level that would operate
like the Patriot batteries that would take out high level
cruise missiles and some of the lower ballistic missiles.
The name that they have for it is David Sling,
and it's roughly that operates on the same level as
the Patriot,
although David Sling is reportedly slightly more advanced.
And then at the top you have Arrow 3,
which is the air defence missile that is going to
be leaving the atmosphere and travelling at incredible speeds,
intercepting ballistic missiles before they're over the territory.
So they're out of the atmosphere
and they're in that mid phase of flight just before
they dive in and that's where they'll be attacked by
Arrow 3 interceptors and destroyed.
Now Iran uses our missiles,
of which only fired a tiny fraction,
or this 330 is a tiny fraction of what they
actually own because they have plowed vast amounts of money
and resources into building up this multi layer offensive
series of platforms in order to be able to
strike Israel, its own Air Force being dilapidated,
antiquated, tiny. And really, it's missiles.
Cruise missiles and ballistic missiles are the only way that
Iran can actually strike Israel and get to its enemy.