While the world now knows that the United States and several Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were involved in interception operations and intelligence support when Iran launched a strike on Israel at night, little is known about the details. But with the release of the relevant information, we also learned the inside story of how these countries, which were also hostile to Israel, did everything they could to help Israel in this attack. Why, then, are these countries that were at war with Israel now defending Israel with all their might? #伊以冲突#
In the aftermath of Iran's massive attack, Israel announced that 99% of its drones and missiles had been successfully intercepted, and while it is not yet possible to confirm the accuracy of this statement, which is second only to Ukraine's conventional "100% interception rate", most of the targets were intercepted by Israel's multi-layered air defense network and multinational fighter jets. Among them are Saudi Arabia, which has not yet established diplomatic relations with Israel, and the United Arab Emirates, which has only "normalized" diplomatic relations with Israel in recent years, but is still very unharmonious.
At present, it is known that Iran had informed Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states two days before the attack, including a summary of the plan and timing of the attack. And the reason why Iran leaked the plan in advance is actually very helpless. After all, more than 300 drones and missiles have to pass through the airspace of these countries, and if they are not notified in advance, once the personnel and facilities of the host country are damaged due to accidental hits or accidental crashes, they will inevitably be used by the United States to isolate Iran.
However, after receiving the notice, these neighboring countries, which are sandwiched between Israel and Iran, not only closed their own airspace to prevent threats to their own airliners or transit passenger planes, but also passed the news to the United States Joint Air Operations Center at Al udeid Air Force Base in Qatar, and the United States gave early warning to Israel. According to foreign media reports, the information obtained by the United States from these countries is not limited to Iran's strike plans, but also includes real-time data on the transit of Iranian drones and missiles detected by the air defense systems of these countries!
The center fed back this information to the ground, air and sea air defense platforms of Israel and many Western countries at that time, so that the fighter jets of these countries could intercept incoming drones and missiles in multiple rounds when they were far away from the Israeli mainland. And in addition to the interception mission carried out by the American F-15E and British and French fighter jets (the United States shot down more than 80 drones), the Jordanian Air Force's F-16s were also involved in intercepting Iranian drones that were passing through their country's airspace.
According to foreign media reports, more than 100 Iranian ballistic missiles were flying towards Israel in the air at that time, and the number of drones was unknown. However, with the support of real-time tracking data provided by radars in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other countries, multinational fighter jets and ground-based air defense systems were able to successfully shoot down a large number of drones and missiles launched by Iran. Two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers used Standard-3 (SM-3) anti-missile interceptor missiles to shoot down as many as six Iranian incoming missiles in the eastern Mediterranean, marking the first combat use of this type of interceptor missile by the U.S. military, according to the U.S. Central Command. And the "Patriot" air defense system deployed by the United States near Erbil, Iraq, also shot down 1 Iranian ballistic missile flying to Israel.
After the early interception operations of the United States and other multinational fighter jets, more than 300 unmanned aerial vehicles and missiles launched by Iran have been eliminated, and the rest of the flight trajectory data has also been continuously provided to the United States and Israel by countries along the way. It should be the Arrow-2 or Arrow-3 interceptor system with the longest range to attack the missiles that are still outside the borders, and then it is the turn of the "David's Sling" air defense system with a range of 40-300 kilometers to participate in the battle, and finally some of the remaining drones or missiles are "rounded" by the "Iron Dome" air defense system with a range of 5-70 kilometers!
While at least five ballistic missiles (Iran says seven) did hit Israel's Navatim airbase that night, according to a senior U.S. Defense Department official, the damage was minimal and the craters that blew up after hitting the runway have now been repaired. The reason why Iran fires multiple missiles at a time at this Israeli air base is because it is not only the deployment of the Israeli Air Force's F-35I, but also the Israeli intelligence organization Mossad. Iran hates the Mossad over the years by planning and carrying out numerous assassinations and sabotage operations in response to Iran's nuclear capability development.
In fact, the reason why many Gulf countries that did not have good relations with Israel have been able to provide very important operational and intelligence support to Israel this time is that Israel has taken the lead in establishing a joint air defense intelligence alliance in the region over the years, with the purpose of sharing information on rockets, missiles and drones launched by Iran and many armed forces it supports, including Saudi Arabia, which has been hit by Houthi missiles and drones. Israel, whose entire territory is regularly hit by rockets, is the biggest beneficiary.
Of course, the establishment of this loose air defense intelligence alliance initiated by Israel is certainly inseparable from the mediation and matchmaking of the United States. After all, the Gulf states involved do not have good relations with Israel, and even if they are more or less threatened by missiles and drones by Iran or its supporters, it will be very difficult for them to bridge the decades-long gap with Israel. Therefore, the United States has become very important. And because there is still a dispute between these Gulf states and Israel, the alliance has not published a list of specific member states, nor has it stipulated the responsibilities that each country must bear.
Therefore, this time, these countries can transmit Iranian attack intelligence to Israel through the United States for the first time, and take the initiative to provide real-time tracking data of their own radars, and even send fighter jets to directly join the interception of Iranian missiles and drones.
However, the reason why these countries are so hard to help Israel is probably not to help Israel, but to try to eliminate the consequences of Iran's attack on Israel. Because if an Iranian attack inflicts huge losses on Israel, then a furious Israel will inevitably launch a large-scale military operation against Iran. And if the situation gets out of hand, then these Gulf states sandwiched between the two countries, such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, will inevitably be involved in it - this is the fundamental reason why they will take the initiative to join the intelligence alliance led by Israel and work hard to "protect" Israel in this Iranian attack!