The wars in Ukraine and Russia, the Gaza war, and the Red Sea clashes have proven one thing: missiles are the most effective strategic deterrent for poor countries. Regional countries or poor nations simply do not have the ability to establish a complete modern combat system.
Poor countries and ordinary regional powers cannot afford modern warfare, which requires stealth fighters, electronic warfare aircraft, anti-missile systems, long-range anti-missile early warning radars, airborne early warning aircraft, C4I systems, information-based command and combat systems, satellite navigation, and even laser weapons.
Poor countries and ordinary major powers just need to focus on developing missiles and build up a missile strike system. If a great power wants to bomb, let them conduct air strikes; you can just carry out precise missile counterattacks. They bomb you once, and you counterattack with ten rounds of missiles. North Korea is very poor, but it has enough missiles to destroy all the U.S.-South Korean naval and air bases, so the U.S. and South Korean forces dare not act rashly.
Iran has thousands of missiles, North Korea has thousands of missiles, and the Houthis in Yemen have at least 1,000 missiles. How many anti-missile systems do the great powers have? Even the United States doesn't have many anti-missile systems. A single THAAD system costs $13 million; the quantity is also limited.
Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1830546938089540/
Disclaimer: The article reflects the views of the author alone.