Israel launched an attack on Iran in the early hours of April 19, but Iran said that the enemy had only flown three drones, and all of them were shot down, and there was no damage on the ground. Unexpectedly, now the slap in the face comes, satellite photos show that the 8th tactical air base in Isfahan was attacked by Israeli missiles, and the radar of the S300PMU2 air defense system deployed there, which is the target designation radar of the S300 anti-aircraft missile, was destroyed, which is very important.
And the status of this air base is quite unusual, not far from Natanz to the north, where Iran's underground uranium enrichment plant is located. According to insiders, this S300PMU2 long-range air defense system is deployed here precisely to protect the nuclear facilities in Natanz. The Israeli radar that blew up the airbase was sending a signal that they were capable of launching a larger attack and destroying Iran's most important nuclear facility.
According to foreign media reports, the reason why Iran claimed that Israel's air strikes were only a few drones was to downplay the impact on the one hand, and on the other hand, it was true that Israeli missiles were not detected, let alone Israeli warplanes. Therefore, both Israeli fighters and missiles should have stealth capabilities.
The Israeli military has F35A fighters purchased from the United States, and its strength is obvious to all. With a very small radar reflection area, the F35A is like no one in the Middle East. Western experts believe that the Israeli Air Force's F35A did not choose the nearest route when it attacked Iran, because that would pass through Jordanian airspace and give Iran a pretext that Jordan supports Israel.
The warplanes made a detour from the north to Syria and Iraq, and from Iraq approached the Iranian border, spotting a mysterious missile. In order to achieve this goal, the Israeli army also bombed a radar battalion in southern Syria and the positions of the 112th brigade of the Syrian army. The wreckage of more than one Israeli missile was also found in Iraq, and Western experts generally believe that the missile was an Israeli-developed "Rock" air-launched supersonic ballistic missile.
This weapon was unveiled at the India Airshow in 2019 and is a very special missile. It is designed to hit distant targets under strong GPS interference. In order to prepare for Israeli air strikes, Iran jammed GPS signals near important locations, and it is very impossible to hit targets if ordinary GPS-guided weapons are used.
However, the "Rock" missile has a unique ability, it can use high-precision inertial navigation during most flight stages, that is, the use of gyroscopes and other inertial navigation components to correct errors and ensure that the missile can fly to the target according to the correct route. Since inertial navigation does not require any external communication, it cannot interfere at all and does not rely on GPS signals.
When the missile flies near the target, the photoelectric seeker at the head of the missile body is turned on, and the photoelectric and infrared images of the target area are obtained, and then compared with the target images stored in advance, and if the images coincide, the location of the target can be determined, and then the attack is launched. Because it is a ballistic missile with solid fuel, the "Rock" flies very fast and is also capable of terminal maneuvering, which is very similar to the Russian "Dagger" missile, and it is more difficult to intercept.
Judging by the models and photos presented at the air show, the shape of the Rock missile is more traditional, the body is cylindrical, there are four trapezoidal wings in the tail, the warhead is long and conical, and the top is clearly equipped with an optoelectronic system. Judging from the missile wreckage found in many places in Iraq, the appearance characteristics are relatively consistent. The shape of the missile does not appear to be stealthy, and it is not clear what special technology Israel uses that can make Iranian air defenses undetectable.
The Israeli military may also be using an improved version of the "Rock" missile, which has stealth capabilities and can also operate in the Iranian hinterland, where GPS interference is severe. Looking at it this way, the three small drones shot down by Iran are likely to be used as "cannon fodder". Israel first uses these drones to attract the attention of Iranian air defense forces, attract firepower, and then take advantage of the opponent's air defense loopholes to launch missile strikes.
Surprisingly, S300PMU2 is a long-range air defense system that Iran and Russia are proud of, with a range of up to 200 kilometers, radar detection at a distance of 300 kilometers, and up to 100 targets at the same time. It is really unreasonable that such an advanced air defense system did not respond when Israeli missiles attacked, and its own radar was destroyed.
This also shows that Israel has thoroughly studied Russian air defense systems such as S300PMU2. When the Israeli army attacked Syria many times, neither the Syrian air defense system nor the S400 air defense system of the Russian army, which was once deployed in Syria, did not react. Iran is also Israel's old enemy, and the S300 anti-aircraft missile, which is the most powerful in its armament, is of course the focus of the Israeli military.
Israel should have discovered the weakness of the S300PMU2, and then adopted a targeted response plan, successfully hitting the target with an air-launched ballistic missile, and achieving the goal of knocking Iran. No matter how stubbornly Iran refuses to admit it now, it should be quite shocked in its heart, and it will have some scruples when making decisions about whether to attack Israel in the future, which is precisely the goal of Israel's air strikes.
Now there is a claim on the Internet that Iran imported the mainland's meter-wave anti-stealth radar, but failed to prevent Israeli air strikes. The responsibility for not being able to detect stealth fighters and missiles should be counted on the mainland's meter-wave radar. This argument is quite funny! Meter-wave radar is mainly used for long-range vigilance, and the wavelength of radar waves is about 1 meter to 10 meters, and the frequency band is about 30~300MHz.
Because modern stealth fighters are mainly guarded against decimeter wave and centimeter wave radar, the design is also focused on reducing the reflection area of these two bands, when encountering a longer wavelength of the meter wave radar, the reflection area will increase significantly, so the meter wave radar has a certain anti-stealth capability.
However, the meter-wave radar cannot guide the interceptor missile to destroy the incoming ballistic missile, which requires a special anti-missile radar to achieve it. In addition, Iran does not have any public record of importing mainland meter-wave radars, and it is obviously unreasonable to blame the Chinese radar for being hit by an Israeli missile.