Since Iran launched a massive missile attack on Israel, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate, and some senior Israel officials have spoken of strikes on Iran's oil or other infrastructure, and even rumors of action against Iran's nuclear facilities. United States President Joe Biden's statement confirmed rumors that Israel will retaliate against Iran, saying that the United States government is negotiating whether to support Israel's attack on Iran's oil facilities. The only thing that is uncertain now is when and how Israel will retaliate against Iran.
Not to be outdone, Iran responded to Israel's harsh rhetoric, with Iran's Foreign Minister Aragohi publicly warning Israel on October 8 that any attack on Iran's infrastructure would be met with reprisals. Iran military sources stressed that the Iranian armed forces have at least 10 options for possible Israel action, saying that Iran's response is not necessarily reciprocal and could be harsher.
In fact, in addition to verbal warnings to Israel, Iran has also come up with a lot of real things that show that it is capable of responding to Israel's retaliatory actions. At the scene of the speech of Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei, a laser air defense system appeared, suspected to be China's "Silent Hunter" laser anti-drone system. According to the US media "War Zone" news network, this laser anti-drone system is a security measure for Khamenei's rare public speech.
However, the US media quoted military analysts as saying that the laser anti-drone system that protects Khamenei may not be China's "Silent Hunter", but more like China's other anti-drone laser defense weapon called "Shennong Shield". Because the laser anti-drone system that appeared next to Khamenei before, the overall design and layout are similar to the "Shennong Shield", and there is a clear difference from the "Silent Hunter" layout, although both are equipped with small radars on top to better detect and track targets.
United States media believe that "Shennong Shield" is a civilian anti-drone system, its performance and parameters are lower than "Silent Hunter", making the system less lethal to UAVs, especially in the face of a large number of UAVs. In view of the fact that there is no official information confirming that Iran purchased the "Shennong Shield" from China, the US media speculated that Iran may have been re-exported from a third country to strengthen its own countermeasures against drones and protect the safety of important people.
The situation at the time of Khamenei's speech confirmed the speculation of the US media, but in any case, since Iran has shown a set of anti-drone systems, there may not be more of the same equipment behind it, which will effectively counter Israel's precise decapitation. The reason why Iran did this is probably also frightened by Israel's targeted assassination methods, and it especially needs practical and effective measures to boost domestic morale and the determination of important figures to confront Israel.
Iran has demonstrated a strong defense capability by coming up with a suspected Chinese laser anti-drone system. At the moment when Israel vows to retaliate, at least it blocks the way for the Israel military to retaliate by assassinating important people in Iran through suicide drones, making it more difficult for Israel to retaliate. In addition, the missile attacks in the previous Iran hit more than Israel important military bases, making it difficult for the F-35 fighters purchased from United States to form a combat capability to break through the Iran air defense system in the short term, so the next retaliatory action against Iran seems to be only the use of a large number of ballistic missile attacks.
However, Israel's ballistic missile stockpile is also a problem, and it has already consumed a lot of stocks in response to anti-Israeli armed forces such as Lebanon's Allah Party, so Israel must urgently purchase a batch of ammunition from United States to launch retaliatory actions against Iran. It is not difficult to understand why the United States and Israel are negotiating on whether to strike Iran.