Iran's current round of missile strikes not only avenged the bombing of the embassy, but also slapped the United States and Israel in the face in a hard-core way. As we all know, Israel is the "little bully of the Middle East", and the United States is the world's number one military power. It is reported that in the air defense operation, Israel burned $1.3 billion in one night of "facing the battle", and a large number of expensive air defense missiles were consumed. However, even with the "Iron Dome" and the American-made "Standard" series of two ace air defense systems, Israel is still disgraced by saturation strikes.
As soon as the cannon sounded, there were ten thousand taels of gold. Let's do the math. As the attacker, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched more than 150 missiles, including 110 ballistic missiles, and 170 Witness-136 suicide drones. Judging from the situation in the international arms market, the cost of this round of Iranian air strikes is only about $62 million. If you add the Lebanese Allah forces, Yemeni Houthi forces, Iraqi militias and other forces that support the attack, the total cost is only about $100 million. Compared with Iran, the United States and Israel, as the defensive side, are really "losing to the bottom of their pants."
First of all, from the point of view of losses, Iran took into account international public opinion and deliberately controlled the intensity and scope of the strike, so it did not cause a large number of Israeli casualties, but under the saturation strike, it still caused losses to many military targets in Israel. In particular, the damage to the Nevatim airbase, where F-35 fighters are stationed, caused heavy losses to the Israeli Air Force. Compared to battle losses, Israel's consumption in air defense operations is greater. After all, if the homeland is attacked, protecting one's own targets is the king's way, and the Israeli army has no time to care about attrition.
Judging by the distribution of operations, the United States and European countries share a lot of pressure on Israel. Among them, the 494th Fighter Squadron and the 335th Fighter Squadron of the US military stationed in the Middle East specially dispatched 48 F-15E "Strike Eagle" fighters to intercept Iran's "Witness-136" suicide drones, which helped Israel a lot. In order to deal with Iran's large number of ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, neither the Israeli nor the US military dared to be careless and directly used expensive air defense and anti-missile missiles. Among them, Israel's "Iron Dome", "Arrow-2" and "Arrow-3" air defense systems, as well as the US military's "Patriot" air defense system, were full of fire and were busy all night. According to preliminary estimates, including the cost of fuel and ammunition for fighter jets, Israel and the United States spent at least $1.3 billion in one night.
If it is said that $1.3 billion was spent to keep safe, it was not unjustly spent. However, in reality, under the saturation blow of Iran, Israel still suffered heavy losses. Ultimately, Israel's small size, lack of strategic depth, combined with its relatively dense population, has led to a plethora of targets. In October last year, Hamas launched a surprise attack, firing thousands of rockets at Israel, leaving Israel's "Iron Dome" overwhelmed. This time, Iran is also a saturation strike, and the Israeli army cannot intercept a large number of missiles and drones through electronic jamming, so it can only "hit hard" and intercept air targets with expensive air defense missiles.
Iran's actions have also given the PLA a series of warnings. Of course, China and Israel, with their vast land areas, are very different, and the strength of the PLA in the field of air defense is far from being comparable to that of the Israeli army. As far as the construction of the air defense system is concerned, the PLA has a variety of air defense radars with long air detection range, strong target tracking capabilities and high positioning accuracy, and with a powerful electronic jamming system, whether it is an incoming drone or missile, it cannot break through the tight air defense network. Even, we do not need to follow Israel's example at all and intercept targets by consuming a large amount of anti-aircraft and anti-missile ammunition, we only need to keep incoming missiles or drones away from populated areas through electronic jamming. Therefore, in terms of the cost of air defense, we can also control it to a minimum. On the other hand, in future military operations, the performance of China's "Dongfeng Express" is much better than that of Iran's missiles, and in the face of the US military's air defense forces, it is destined to play a better exchange ratio, and in this regard, the PLA has more confidence.
Of course, modernizing air defense systems is not omnipotent, and not without weaknesses. From the "Al-Aqsa Flood Operation" to the current round of the Iraq-Israel air defense war, the success of the "saturation air strike" has also sounded the alarm bell for us. Even if subsonic cruise missiles and low-cost drones reach a certain size, they can also make the opponent's air defense system vulnerable. Especially in recent years, the use of drones in warfare has become more widespread and destructive. On the basis of possessing a variety of high-end air defense weapons and electronic jamming equipment, the PLA should also pose a threat to the "saturation of low-end equipment" in the future. Only by combining high and low levels to form a more three-dimensional and rigorous air defense system can we truly achieve the "combination of soft and hard" interception means.