It is said that fighting a war is burning money, and the speed at which modern warfare burns money is even more extraordinary, and Israel, which has just been slapped by Iran's missiles, has the most say in this.
[Iranian missile strike]
In order to intercept the saturation strike caused by Iranian ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and suicide drones, Israeli air defense systems fired at all levels and used warplanes to intercept them. It is estimated that at least $1.33 billion was spent on Israel's territorial air defense operations.
Asymmetrical cost-effectiveness ratio
Although the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps used high-precision weapons and equipment, including the Abar hypersonic ballistic missile, the total cost was only 62 million yuan, less than one-tenth of Israel's cost.
[Israeli interceptor missile lifts off]
As a small country, Israel cannot respond to multiple air strikes of this magnitude over a long period of time.
What's more, Iran not only spends less, but also the strike effect is not bad, Iranian drones and missiles are used to form a saturation strike effect on Israeli air defense systems to the maximum.
At present, there are many models of ground systems for Israel's territorial air defense, including the Iron Dome, the David's Sling, and the Arrow 2\3, and the Arrow 5, which has the capability of mid-course anti-missile interception, is under development.
【Israel Arrow 3】
However, with the improvement of Iran's missile technology, modern missile attack and defense have entered an era in which the spear is greater than the shield, although Israel stubbornly refuses to admit it, saying that Iran's air raid caused only minor losses, and the interception success rate of Israel's air defense system is as high as 90%.
But in such a transparent world, satellite photos taken by commercial satellite companies after the attacks on Israel's air bases soon appeared on the Internet.
It can be confirmed that Iranian ballistic missiles have successfully penetrated and hit targets at Israel's Ramon Air Base, Nevatim Air Base, the Golan Heights and the Mossad headquarters on Mount Hermon, and the Israeli air defense myth has been clearly punctured.
[Attack on Israeli Air Force Base]
Among them, the runway of Israel's Nevatim airbase, where Israeli Air Force F-35I fighters are deployed, was severely damaged.
Considering that behind the taxiway is the hangar of the F-35I fighters, the explosion of the ballistic missile is likely to cause some losses to Israel's advanced fighters, of course, Israel will certainly not admit it.
The damage to Ramon airbase was even more severe than that of Nevatim, with first-hand images of Iranian ballistic missile strikes at Ramon airbase deep in the desert, with at least seven Abar ballistic missiles carrying hypersonic warheads hitting their targets.
[Iranian ballistic missile hits target]
In the video, Iran's hypersonic missile also demonstrated a wave of second-stage acceleration capabilities to strike the final stage of the defense, and the air defense system deployed at Ramon airbase did not respond effectively.
Israel's current statement also proves that the damage to Ramon Air Base may be quite serious, as Nevatim Air Base was urgently restored to operational capability immediately after the attack, but Ramon Air Base is still closed.
Considering that F-35I fighters are also deployed at Ramon Air Base, it is possible that such fighters have already been lost in such a large-scale strike.
【Israeli F-35I】
Israel's vaunted air defense network proved to be as porous as a massive attack by advanced missiles in this attack, and Iran's strike was already tentative.
Except for a few hypersonic missiles, most of them are relatively old ballistic missile models, which have the meaning of taking the opportunity to clear their stocks, but they still achieved very good results.
If the Iranian side "clears its missile stockpiles" from time to time, it may make Israel go bankrupt directly.
China may be in the same predicament
Many military experts believe that the Israeli attack once again justified the concept of a saturation strike, and that it was not only the IDF air defense systems that were involved in this air defense operation.
【Iranian Missile】
The THAAD and Patriot 3 deployed by the US military in the surrounding areas also participated in the interception operation, and the US Navy's fighter planes and the Standard 3 and Standard 6 anti-missile interceptor missiles on destroyers also joined the battle.
However, as long as there are enough incoming missiles, it will be enough to break through any air defense network, and the strike density is the primary productive force for penetrating defense.
As a result, many people have also begun to worry about whether China will suffer certain losses in the Taiwan Strait if it is struck by a similar blow in a future conflict in the Taiwan Strait? After all, the Taiwan authorities also have a so-called "Chinese Academy of Sciences," and although they cannot develop too advanced missiles, they can still master low-cost ammunition.
[Missiles developed with the support of the Taiwan authorities]
This concern is unwarranted, because China has two advantages in territorial air defense operations that Israel does not have.
First, in this era when the spear is greater than the shield, the best defense is actually the offense, which means that China's use of missiles to destroy the enemy's ability to fight back can fundamentally alleviate the air threat facing China.
However, China obviously has a tremendous advantage in missile attack, and China is currently the world's most advanced missile power in terms of comprehensive technology.
In fact, the outside world has been speculating that the proliferation of hypersonic missile technology has a great relationship with China, and North Korea, Iran and other countries have successively mastered this advanced missile technology that the United States has not mastered so far, and it happened after China's first-generation hypersonic missile technology represented by the Dongfeng 17 matured.
【Dongfeng 17】
At present, China's missile penetration capability and precision strike capability are the second, and no one dares to claim that they are the first, and even the US military in the Asia-Pacific region has to admit that at present the US military does not have the capability to intercept PLA missile strikes within the second island chain.
Second, China has an extremely vast territory, unlike Israel, which is almost always densely populated residential areas, and it must consider the collateral damage caused by missile interception.
On the other hand, China can simultaneously carry out electronic suppression, electronic jamming, soft kill methods, and hard kill means such as direct interception.
【Mid-course interception】
Moreover, almost all of the PLA's high-value targets are separated from densely populated areas, and the PLA's anti-missile interception will have a lot less worries, and it can rest assured that it can boldly use various means. It can not only effectively reduce the cost of interception, but also improve the success rate of interception.
Sources:
[1] Again!China successfully tested land-based mid-course anti-missile interception technology.See the official news account [Citation date:2022-06-20]
[2] Everything you want to know about land-based mid-course anti-missile interception technology is here.chinanews [Citation date:2021-02-06]