Former fighter pilot explains how Israel repelled Iranian attack as new details emerge
Sean Bell, Military Analyst
On April 1, the Iranian consulate in Damascus was attacked, destroying the building and killing 13 people inside, including two senior Iranian military officers. In response, Iran launched an unprecedented salvo of missiles and drones toward Israel on April 13.
The attack, dubbed Operation True Promise, reportedly involved around 170 drones, 120 surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and 30 cruise missiles.
Had even a fraction of the Iranian missiles hit their intended targets, Israel could have suffered heavy casualties and almost certainly would have triggered a wider regional war.
Instead, a large-scale multinational operation was launched to defend Israel.
Although Israel provided few details at the time, it is now clear that this was a unique and complex multinational effort under extremely difficult and dangerous conditions.
This is one of the topics covered on this week’s RedMatrix Podcast.
Detect, track and destroy – but how do you do it?
The first challenge was to detect and track the progress of cruise and ballistic missile launches, which are major threats.
The outer ring of Israeli defense was probably provided by U.S. warships stationed in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.
However, most of the incoming missiles and drones appear to have been intercepted by allied fighter jets.
As a former fighter pilot myself, fighter jets would have needed unimpeded access to Israel’s neighboring airspace to intercept missiles during night operations, but at the same time avoid debris from a successful interception falling into urban areas. He would have been under immense pressure to do so. Expand the area and cause casualties.
A very complex and dangerous mission
Fighters had to develop complex airspace collision avoidance plans, quickly implement them, and follow procedures to minimize the risk of collision.
Refueling would also have been necessary to extend fighter range, and fighter controllers would have helped prioritize targets and ensure conflict resolution.
Many of the fighters would have been armed with air-to-air guns, but targeting slow drones at night or at low altitudes would have been a difficult challenge.
Rather, fighters may have had to choose between using heat-seeking missiles or radar-guided missiles.
Although these missiles are very capable, they are optimized for shooting down modern fighter jets, not small, plastic, slow-moving drones.
Finally, Israel’s Iron Dome missiles served as the last line of defense.
Kudos to the Royal Air Force
This highly complex, dynamic and dangerous mission was hurriedly undertaken by multinational forces with clear success.
No wonder Chancellor Rishi Sunak praised RAF pilots who put themselves at risk “to protect innocent people and safeguard peace and stability”.
