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- cross-posted to:
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The United States shot down more drones and missiles than Israel did on Saturday night during Iran’s attack, The Intercept can report.
More than half of Iran’s weapons were destroyed by U.S. aircraft and missiles before they ever reached Israel. In fact, by commanding a multinational air defense operation and scrambling American fighter jets, this was a U.S. military triumph.
The extent of the U.S. military operation is unbeknownst to the American public, but the Pentagon coordinated a multination, regionwide defense extending from northern Iraq to the southern Persian Gulf on Saturday. During the operation, the U.S., U.K., France, and Jordan all shot down the majority of Iranian drones and missiles. In fact, where U.S. aircraft originated from has not been officially announced, an omission that has been repeated by the mainstream media. Additionally, the role of Saudi Arabia is unclear, both as a base for the United States and in terms of any actions by the Saudi military.
“U.S. intelligence estimates that half of the weapons fired by Iran failed upon launch or in flight due to technical issues,” a U.S. Air Force senior officer told The Intercept. Of the remaining 160 or so, the U.S. shot down the majority, the officer said. The officer was granted anonymity to speak about sensitive operational matters.
That is what I was thinking, but also wonder if it was part of their show of power. They telegraphed their intentions fairly clearly. If they intentionally disabled half of the drones after take off, then it might simply be an additional warning. If this attack was shot down, could double the drones also be shot down? Just speculation, but I do have a feeling that there is more to it than just half malfunctioned.
Take an estimate of how many you think they can stop, let’s say 100.
Set up 500 in incrementally increasing waves, give them a weeks notice it’s coming, then a short warning before you launch.
When some start to make it thru, flip a switch to drop some out of the next wave
You now have an accurate number for how many drones/missiles can be shot out of the sky by Israel and the US over a range of time.
This wasn’t an “attack” it was pushing up and finding out exactly how much Israel can handle.
The implied threat being if Iran wanted to, they could overwhelm Israel’s defense, and they now know exactly how much that would take. Along with what out of a huge range of options gets thru best.
Say they launch an actual attack, they could include a bunch of dummy ordnances delivered by the payloads most likely to be shot down, and prioritize the heaviest payloads in what’s less likely to be shot down.
This was also a great leaning experience for the US and the other participants. With Ukraine’s experience against the Russian invasion, we’re seeing how drones are completely changing military strategy. Strategists all over the world are probably reviewing this “battle” to learn as much as they can to later apply it to both offensive and defensive weapons.
Yeah, I have a feeling disabling ordinances might have been actively done in communication with the US to get to the 99% number.
It would he curious to see what the failure rate in Ukraine is for Iranian drones and missiles.