An Iranian missile dam advances at high speed, while a flood of Israeli interceptors rises to contain the majority, but not all, the shots. The scene, common in Israel’s skies in the early days of the conflict with Iran, has become increasingly rare as stocks – both Iranian missiles and Israeli interceptors – run out. According to an authority of the United States to the Wall Street Journal, Israel has few interceptors of the Arrow system, used to contain long -range ballistic missiles, which increases concern about the country’s defense capacity with an imminent war.
The US, according to the American authority, has been aware of Israel’s defense capacity problems for months and have reinforced with land, sea and air systems. Since the conflict began, for example, the Pentagon has sent more antimysis defense resources to the region, so there is concerns that the US is also spending its interceptors.
“Neither the US nor the Israelis can continue to sit intercepting missiles all day,” said Tom Karako, director of the missile defense project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
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Israeli intelligence officials, according to the Washington Post, estimated that Iran had about 2,000 missiles capable of traveling 1,933 kilometers to reach Israel. Since the beginning of the conflict, last Friday, Israeli military authorities claim that Iran has launched about 400 missiles from their stock and that Israeli attacks have eliminated 120, or one third, from Iranian projectiles. In addition, Israel announced last Monday that it had reached aerial superiority over Tehran, which could further limit missile releases.
According to the Washington Post, which cited an informed source on US and Israel intelligence ratings, without greater involvement of US forces, Israel could keep his defense antimysis for another 10 or 12 days if Iran follows a constant rhythm of attacks.
The intensity of Iranian bombings, however, also seems to be dramatically decreasing. After firing more than 150 missiles on the first night of the conflict, Iran, according to the Washington Post, fired only 10 on Tuesday afternoon.
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On Friday night, the Israeli air defenses failed to stop Iranian missiles that almost hit the headquarters of the Armed Forces of Israel (IDF), but hit the center of Tel Aviv. On Sunday night, an Iranian missile knocked down a large oil refinery near Haifa. And on Tuesday morning, videos showed four impacts of Iranian missiles near the headquarters of Israeli intelligence, north of Tel Aviv.
Even so, Israeli analysts warn that more than half of Iran’s arsenal remains intact, and an unknown amount of missiles may be hidden in underground deposits. Marker, an important Israeli financial newspaper, reported that antimysis defense costs Israel up to 1 billion shekels, or about $ 1 billion per night.
Such Inbar, an Israeli expert in missile missiles to the missile defense alliance, said that the problem of Israel is that the country depends largely on the relatively expensive air defense system, which fires interceptors that cost $ 3 million (about $ 16 million in the current price) each.
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Until last Tuesday, the Israeli government reported that only 35 of the 400 missiles fired by Iran reached the target-a success rate of interception of over 90%. In the attacks, 24 people died and more than 600 were injured, the government said. Iranian authorities reported that 224 people were killed in Israeli attacks until Sunday, the latest numbers available.
Sought by the Wall Street Journal, Israel Aerospace Industries, a company that manufactures interceptors Arrow, has not spoken out. IDF said that “they are prepared to deal with any scenario.” However, the military said that “unfortunately, we cannot comment on ammunition issues.”
