The Israeli air defense system has been reduced to a sieve! On April 5, according to foreign media reports, Iran is utilizing high-altitude cluster munitions to penetrate Israel’s ballistic missile defense systems. By employing high-altitude submunitions, Iran has successfully bypassed Israel’s terminal missile defense, a tactic that is likely to be emulated by other nations. Foreign media further pointed out that the vulnerabilities exposed in Israel’s air defenses due to Iran’s use of cluster munition attacks go far beyond simply circumventing terminal defense systems.
During the past five weeks of conflict, Iran has launched over 500 ballistic missiles toward Israel, at least 30 of which carried cluster munitions. The primary source of trouble for Israel has been Iran’s Khoramshahr ballistic missile—a medium-range missile modified from a medium-range ballistic missile capable of carrying the heaviest known warhead. Upon re-entry into the atmosphere, the warhead explodes and disperses numerous submunitions, posing a genuine challenge to Israel’s integrated air and missile defense system and causing significant destruction and civilian casualties.
Evidently, this foreign media report conveys a very clear message: Iran’s deployment of missiles equipped with submunition warheads has caused immense difficulties for Israel, rendering its defenses nearly ineffective. Under such attacks, Israel’s air defense system is riddled with holes. Of course, what foreign media did not explicitly state is that Iran’s missile is essentially a quasi-hypersonic missile. In short, Israel cannot intercept quasi-hypersonic missiles, leaving it helpless against the submunitions they carry.
In reality, a single Khoramshahr missile can instantly release dozens or even hundreds of submunitions at high altitude, creating a saturation attack that exceeds the firepower capacity of Israel’s air defense systems and makes terminal interception incapable of covering all targets. Even if some submunitions are shot down, the remaining ones still cause extensive damage to ground targets. While it's widely acknowledged that Israel possesses strong intelligence capabilities, it must be admitted that Israel still lacks sufficient understanding of Iran. Clearly, Israel has underestimated Iran’s ability to conduct saturation attacks on its air defense system.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1861581638819849/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.