An immense battlefield. This is how analysts describe the sky over the Middle East on the night of Iran’s attack on Israel. Attacks from Lebanon, Yemen and Iranian territory on the one hand. Fighters in flight and anti-aircraft batteries on the other. A very difficult night for the forces of the Jewish state and for Tel Aviv’s allies who provided support, not only strategic, to the Israeli defense. A clash with advanced technologies fought over the skies of six countries in the region. Gianluca Di Feo on Repubblica reconstructs the phases of the Iranian attack and the defense of Israel and its allies. The Ayatollahs would plan and launch their retaliation by coordinating swarms of drones and missiles. “A terrible flying carpet – writes the journalist – which split over Iraq into a pincer destined to hit Israel from the North and the South”.
To saturate the Jewish defenses, the Iranians synchronized the timing of the launch. First the drones: the Mohajer-10, with a load of three hundred kilos of explosives, and the Shahed 136 which have thirty kilos of TNT. Estimated flight time is 5 hours. Two hours later, off to the cruise missiles – 8 thousand kilometers an hour and two hours of flight to reach the target – and finally the Ayatollah’s most fearsome weapon. 10 thousand kilometers per hour, very high trajectory and 9 minutes to cover the distance between Iran and Tel Aviv: these are the Sejil, Kheibar and Haj Qasem ballistic missiles, named in memory of General Soleimani killed in 2020 by the Americans. Meanwhile, the Iraqi, Yemeni, Syrian and Lebanese Shiite militias were in action and attempted to distract the Israeli anti-aircraft fire. Hezbollah fired on the command of the surface-air batteries protecting the Golan, an area which together with the Negev was among the objectives of Tehran’s retaliation.
The IDF responded by deploying its full arsenal. The Arrows, Tel Aviv’s missiles that collided with ballistic missiles; the “Slingshots of David” which shot down cruise missiles and finally, Iron Dome, which dealt with drones. Supporting Tel Aviv were two US Navy cruisers that offered the Aegis anti-missile system. IDF fighters and allied fighters from the United States, France and the United Kingdom are also on the field. And the flocks were fundamental in shooting down enemy aircraft and missiles. “The Pentagon has become convinced that the best tool to destroy drones and cruise missiles are planes – writes Di Feo -. The Israelis have also experimented with it in recent weeks, taking advantage of the extraordinary capabilities of the F35 sensors.” Dozens of F35s, F16s and F15s succeeded in their task. The biggest difficulty was identifying the drones since their propeller engines emit little heat and are made of plastic materials that elude radar. But once discovered, thanks to their slowness, they were an easy target for Tel Aviv fighters, American fighters – the F16s located in Jordan and the F-18s from the Eisenhower aircraft carrier from the Red Sea – British Eurofighters and French Mirage 2000s. In the skies of Syria, Iraq and Jordan, duels followed one another with Israeli jets using their on-board cannons to destroy the fragile remote-controlled bombers. Fighters that could now react to the Iranian attack with extraordinary efficiency “given the supremacy of the Israeli air force”. The beginning, perhaps, of long days of war.
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2024-04-16 01:14:30