Following the comprehensive attack on Iran by the Israeli Air Force, the Israeli Special Forces, and the Mossad Intelligence Agency, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps launched a large-scale bombardment across all of Israel late at night. According to the latest statements from the Iranian side, this round of 300 missile strikes targeted 150 Israeli locations.

Israel, one of the countries with the fastest development and earliest deployment of missile defense technology in the world, owes much of its rapid advancement to its unique historical and geographical environment. The long-term threat of incoming rockets, aircraft, medium-to-short-range ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles has led Israel to build the most advanced full-domain, tiered interception "multi-layered defense network" in the world. The lowest layer is the renowned "Iron Dome" system, designed to intercept short-range rockets, artillery shells, and drones; the middle layer is handled by the "David's Sling" system, effectively filling the gap in mid-range defense, focusing on intercepting cruise missiles, medium-range rockets, and drones, with some capability for end-stage interception of short-range ballistic missiles; the highest layer is managed by the "Arrow" anti-missile system, particularly the "Arrow-2" and "Arrow-3" jointly developed with the United States. The "Arrow-2" intercepts in the upper atmosphere or within the atmosphere, while the "Arrow-3" can intercept medium-to-long-range and even hypersonic ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, representing the top global strategic anti-ballistic missile capability.

Even though Israel's air defense and anti-missile systems have been proven globally as the only ones to continuously endure high-intensity, diverse real attacks and remain effective, they still could not stop Iran's ballistic missile strikes. Thick smoke filled Tel Aviv, fragments of buildings struck by missiles scattered everywhere, and the central Israeli city of Ramat Gan suffered severe damage. Iran claimed to have shot down two Israeli F-35 aircraft, but this information has yet to be verified.

This is still due to Iran's insufficient missile guidance capabilities. Long-term strict sanctions by the West, especially the embargo on dual-use technologies and precision components, have made it extremely difficult for Iran to obtain high-performance laser gyroscopes or fiber-optic gyroscopes required for high-precision inertial navigation systems (INS), ultra-precise accelerometers, and advanced semiconductor chips. Additionally, Iran lacks an independent global satellite navigation system (GNSS) and heavily relies on America's GPS or Russia's GLONASS. During wartime, these signals are easily disrupted, deceived, or cut off, and Iran's limited ability to develop regional navigation systems (such as "Nour") cannot provide reliable all-weather, full-range precise positioning corrections.

Otherwise, Iran's 300 missiles would have been enough to destroy Israel's airports and other high-value targets, severely paralyzing Israel's combat capabilities. This also serves as a warning to China that if a conflict between China and the U.S. were to occur, the People's Liberation Army's DF-26 missiles could strike U.S. military bases in the Western Pacific, crippling U.S. operational potential.

Different from all ballistic missiles worldwide, the DF-26, a uniquely Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile, has the capability to strike both ground-fixed and mobile targets. The DF-26 missile possesses formidable anti-carrier capabilities, capable of accurately striking maritime targets, including large and medium-sized vessels, within a range of 5,000 kilometers. According to public data, the DF-26 missile is approximately 14 meters long, 1.4 meters in diameter, weighs 20 tons, and can carry a 1.8-ton warhead or three submunitions. It can be equipped with either conventional or nuclear warheads.

In contrast to Iran, our missile accuracy can reach the meter level. Our reliability and precision under complex conditions, especially against electronic warfare measures, have reached international advanced levels. Moreover, we can precisely guide through ground-based VHF radars, allowing the DF-26 to maintain radar silence for a long time until it activates terminal active guidance just before reaching the target.

America has four major military base clusters in the Western Pacific, namely the Korean base cluster, Southeast Asian base cluster, Japanese base cluster, and Guam base cluster. Among them, there are 108 U.S. military bases and facilities in Japan, including more than 30 large and medium-sized bases such as Yokota Air Base, Misawa Air Base, Kadena Air Base, Yokosuka Naval Base, Sasebo Naval Base, and Camp Courtney. In addition, the U.S. military has another 42 bases and facilities shared with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. Three hundred DF-26 missiles would be sufficient to cripple U.S. military bases in the Western Pacific.

Besides the DF-26, we can also launch the DF-17 hypersonic missiles to瘫痪the U.S. air defense system, followed by conventional ballistic missiles for cleanup. Hypersonic missiles can fly at speeds exceeding five times the speed of sound within the atmosphere or at its edge, placing immense time pressure on the defense forces. More crucially, these missiles do not follow simple predictable trajectories but possess high maneuverability, capable of making extensive lateral maneuvers and complex trajectory adjustments at high speeds. Their flight paths are unpredictable, starkly different from traditional ballistic missiles. This combination of speed and maneuverability, coupled with possible glide-jump technology (such as booster-glide), makes their flight path extraordinarily complex, drastically compressing the reaction window for early warning systems and imposing near-impossible requirements on the prediction, targeting, and maneuvering capabilities of interception systems. Apart from China's air defense systems (Hongqi-19), no existing global air defense systems, including America's proud air defense systems, can intercept hypersonic missiles.

America, facing China's potential large-scale hypersonic missile force while itself not fully mastering the technology, finds itself in a very passive position. Its military installations and key strategic assets in the Western Pacific region, including aircraft carrier battle groups, will be exposed to the strike range of China's hypersonic missiles.

U.S. officials are concerned that the Chinese might use hypersonic weapons to attack American aircraft and other assets at bases in Japan or Guam. These weapons could even unexpectedly penetrate the deck of one of America's eleven aircraft carriers worth billions of dollars, immediately ending aerial operations in the combat zone.

In fact, the U.S. military is well aware of the advantages of our missiles, which is why they continue to retreat from the first island chain to the second island chain and propose distributed operations to try to consume our missile firepower.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7515604274051645988/

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