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Middle East Eye
3 days ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Israel hit Iran five times more than Iran hit back, US analysts say
Two US-based defence think tanks say Israel has bombarded Iranian territory far more extensively than Iran has managed to retaliate. Analysts from the Critical Threats Project and the Institute for the Study of War say the scale of Israeli air raids on Iran vastly outweighs Tehran's counterattacks. Here's what they found:
Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Iran is running out of ammo, rocket launchers as it struggles to keep up with Israel: experts
Iran's retaliatory attacks against Israel have been significantly diminished over the past two days following Israeli assaults against their missile silos and launching sites, experts said. After firing more than 200 rockets in six waves of missile strikes against Israel on Friday and Saturday, Tehran only launched two waves of attacks the following day with only three dozen missiles each, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank tracking the fighting. Monday saw about 40 more missiles fired, with about half that on Tuesday — all while the Israeli military touted that it has successfully decimated Iran's ability to retaliate. Tehran initially planned to fire 1,000 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to Friday's preemptive strike, but the strong response never came to fruition because of the severe damage to Iran's ammunition, the ISW said. 'Iran has used significantly fewer munitions in its response to Israel than originally planned because the IDF destroyed and damaged missile launchers and silos that Iran planned to use to retaliate against Israel,' it wrote. Before the current conflict started, US and Israeli officials estimated that Iran's stockpile of missiles was at about 2,000, and not all of them were capable of reaching the Jewish state, according to the think tank. That number has likely plummeted following Israel's repeated attacks against Tehran's missile launching facilities, which carried on into Tuesday. The Israel Defense Forces estimates that some 40% of Iran's ballistic missile launches have been destroyed since Israel began bombing the Islamic Republic on Friday. The Israel Air Force said that more than 70 Iranian air defense missile batteries have also been wiped out, crippling Tehran's ability to keep its military facilities from being further destroyed. The Israeli military has said it will continue to 'hunt down' Iran's missile silos and launchers, with the IDF sharing video after video on X of rocket facilities destroyed in Iran. With Iran only firing small-scale attacks recently, Israel's Home Front Command issued an end to its pre-launch alerts, which gave citizens a wider window to seek shelter from Iran's ballistic missile attacks. Originally published as Iran is running out of ammo, rocket launchers as it struggles to keep up with Israel: experts
New York Post
4 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Iran is running out of ammo, rocket launchers as it struggles to keep up with Israel: experts
Iran's retaliatory attacks against Israel have been significantly diminished over the past two days following Israeli assaults against their missile silos and launching sites, experts said. After firing more than 200 rockets in six waves of missile strikes against Israel on Friday and Saturday, Tehran only launched two waves of attacks the following day with only three dozen missiles each, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank tracking the fighting. Monday saw about 40 more missiles fired, with about half that on Tuesday — all while the Israeli military touted that it has successfully decimated Iran's ability to retaliate. Advertisement 3 The IDF has repeatedly posted video of successful attacks on Iran's missile silos since that airstrikes began on Friday. @idfonline/X 3 Iranian missiles are being fired in fewer numbers after Israel reportedly decimated Tehran's missile launcher facilities. Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images Tehran initially planned to fire 1,000 ballistic missiles at Israel in response to Friday's preemptive strike, but the strong response never came to fruition because of the severe damage to Iran's ammunition, the ISW said. 'Iran has used significantly fewer munitions in its response to Israel than originally planned because the IDF destroyed and damaged missile launchers and silos that Iran planned to use to retaliate against Israel,' it wrote. Advertisement Before the current conflict started, US and Israeli officials estimated that Iran's stockpile of missiles was at about 2,000, and not all of them were capable of reaching the Jewish state, according to the think tank. That number has likely plummeted following Israel's repeated attacks against Tehran's missile launching facilities, which carried on into Tuesday. 3 Drone footage shows the damage to a residential block in Tel Aviv during the height of the Iranian missile barrage. REUTERS Advertisement The Israel Defense Forces estimates that some 40% of Iran's ballistic missile launches have been destroyed since Israel began bombing the Islamic Republic on Friday. The Israel Air Force said that more than 70 Iranian air defense missile batteries have also been wiped out, crippling Tehran's ability to keep its military facilities from being further destroyed. The Israeli military has said it will continue to 'hunt down' Iran's missile silos and launchers, with the IDF sharing video after video on X of rocket facilities destroyed in Iran. With Iran only firing small-scale attacks recently, Israel's Home Front Command issued an end to its pre-launch alerts, which gave citizens a wider window to seek shelter from Iran's ballistic missile attacks.
USA Today
4 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Israel-Iran timeline: How Israeli attack and Iranian retaliation unfolded
Israel-Iran timeline: How Israeli attack and Iranian retaliation unfolded Iran and Israel continue to exchange strikes five days after their long-simmering conflict hit the flashpoint. Israel's surprise attack on Tehran's nuclear program and targeted assassination of Iranian leadership kicked off a sequence of events that has left hundreds reported killed and the United States at risk of being dragged further into the war. Here's a closer look at what has unfolded since Israel's initial strikes. The maps below are based on assessments from the The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). They include confirmed airstrikes, reported airstrikes, reports of explosion with footage, and reports of explosions without footage. The data is collected from sources including geolocated visual evidence and opposition, local and international media. USA TODAY conducted additional verification on some, but not all of the strikes. June 12 Israel conducted the first strikes of an air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear program and leadership at 11 p.m. ET, according to The Critical Threats Project (CTP) at the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). June 13 The Israeli military conducted attacks targeting Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and hit additional targets "at the heart" of the Islamic Republic's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, according to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The surprise attack killed nearly the entire top echelon of Iran's military commanders, Reuters reported. Netanyahu said that "Iran's leading nuclear scientists" were also targets in the attacks. Iran launched three retaliatory waves of missiles at targets in Israel. Here's a closer look at the locations Iran's weapons and nuclear facilities, according to The Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-profit organization which describes its mission as "reducing nuclear, biological, and emerging technology threats imperiling humanity." June 14 The Israeli military struck an unspecified underground weapons facility in western Iran, according to ISW. Iranian state media reported that Israel bombed multiple energy facilities in southern Iran. South Pars field – the world's largest gasfield – was struck along with the Fajr Jam gas plant. Iran's Petroleum Ministry confirmed that the Shahran depot was also targeted by Israel, Al Jazeera reported. June 15 Israel and Iran continued to exchange airstrikes, ISW reported. Israel also targeted Iranian government buildings, such as the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry in Tehran and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. Iran sent hundreds of drones and missiles to Israel, damaging the country's largest oil refinery near the port city of Haifa and the Weizmann Institute of Science, a top research center in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter appeared on ABC News 'This Week' where host Martha Raddatz asked Leiter to talk about Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, suggesting that Israel cannot destroy the site located deep under a mountainside without U.S. assistance in the form of bunker-busting bombs. Leiter suggested that Israel may not need to rely on the bomb Raddatz described, known as the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator, to achieve its aims. "We have a number of contingencies which will enable us to deal with Fordow. Not everything is a matter of taking to the skies and bombing from afar," said Leiter. "We're certain that we can set back the nuclear weapons system development within Iran for a very, very long time." June 16 An Israeli strike hit Iran's state broadcaster on Monday June 16 and bombed a command center of an elite Iranian military unit, the New York Times reported. That same day, Israel said it hit Iranian F-14 fighter planes at Tehran airport. Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the BBC it was very likely all the roughly 15,000 centrifuges operating at Iran's biggest uranium enrichment plant at Natanz were badly damaged or destroyed because of a power cut caused by an Israeli strike. In a social media post, Secretary of Defesne Pete Hegseth announced the "deployment of additional capabilities to the Unted States Central Command Area of Responsibility." The Washington Post, citing flight-tracking data, reports that more than two dozen tanker planes were deployed from the United States to Europe on Sunday and Monday. Flight Animation Shows US Military Planes Heading to Europe Animation provided by FlightRadar24 shows what it said were tankers and heavy transport jets heading towards Europe. FlightRadar24 via Storyful Reuters reports that U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz left the South China Sea on Monday morning heading west, according to data from ship tracking website Marine Traffic. The Pentagon has shifted warplanes and an aircraft carrier to the Middle East as the conflict between Israel and Iran continues to rage, but the moves have been defensive in nature as the U.S. observes rather than participates in Israel's punishing air campaign, according to U.S. officials. June 17 The ongoing aerial war between Israel and Iran entered its fifth day on June 17 as Israel hit Iranian cities with bombs and some Iranian missiles evaded Israel's iron dome defense system. More than 220 Iranians have been killed and at least 1,200 injured since the bombardment began, Iranian state media reported. Two dozen Israelis have been killed in Iranian missile attacks, officials said. Contributing: Jennifer Borresen, Tom Vanden Brook, Cybele Mayes-Osterman, and Shawn J. Sullivan, USA TODAY This is a developing story which will be updated. Live updates: 'Easy target': Trump threatens Iran's supreme leader, says he's safe 'for now'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel's air superiority lets it strike Iran on the cheap — and force Tehran into costly retaliation
Israeli fighter jets have battered Iran's air defenses, allowing them to operate more freely. The degraded surface-to-air missile threat means Israeli aircraft can use cheaper weapons to strike. Iran, meanwhile, is left retaliating with its more expensive ballistic missiles. The Israeli military says it has achieved air superiority over swaths of Iran, including the capital Tehran, after battering the country's air defenses in recent bombing runs. The Monday declaration that Israel has an overwhelming advantage in the air comes just a few days into an intensive operation aimed at degrading Iran's nuclear program and wiping out its military capabilities, including a substantial number of surface-to-air missile launchers. Israel is operating its F-35I stealth fighter jets above Iran and also its fourth-generation aircraft, like the F-16 and F-15, that lack some of the same low observable capabilities but can drop cheap glide bombs on Iranian targets. On Sunday, Israeli fighter jets struck the Mashhad airport in eastern Iran, some 1,400 miles away, marking Israel's longest-range attack since beginning its bombing campaign and further underscoring its ability to fly largely uncontested above Iran. The effective Israeli strikes on Iranian air defenses and military airports "will degrade Iran's ability to restrict Israeli operations in its airspace," the Institute for the Study of War, a conflict studies think tank in Washington, DC, said on Sunday. Weapons analysts have identified Israeli fighter jets armed with Joint Direct Attack Munitions. JDAMs, which are made by the US defense contractor Boeing, are dumb bombs fitted with relatively cheap guidance kits that turn them into precision-guided munitions. These weapons are not considered stand-off weapons. Analysts have also spotted Israeli aircraft armed with SPICE bombs. Like JDAMs, guidance kits that turn dumb bombs into precision weapons. They are made by the local defense firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Open-source intelligence accounts have noted the use of JDAMs and SPICE — which stands for Smart, Precise Impact, Cost-Effective — bombs in the airstrikes across Iran, including around Tehran. Israel's ability to fire these munitions suggests it is less concerned about defenses and does not necessarily have to employ its more expensive missiles for high-value targets. It has more options. Iran, which lacks a strong air force, has retaliated against Israel by firing more than 370 ballistic missiles in multiple waves since Friday. There have been at least 30 impact sites so far, killing two dozen people and wounding over 590 others, according to Israeli government statistics. Ballistic missiles, which can cost millions of dollars apiece, are much more expensive than the individual JDAMs and SPICE bombs Israel is using to strike Iran. A single JDAM, for instance, may cost only tens of thousands of dollars. By firing multiple salvos of missiles, Iran is depleting its stockpiles; it is estimated to have hundreds, possibly thousands, that can reach Israel. Israel said on Monday that it had destroyed a third of Tehran's launchers during the fight, limiting its ability to get missiles off the ground. Iran has also launched hundreds of drones at Israel. While these are much cheaper than the missiles — Tehran's notorious Shahed-136 drone is estimated to cost as little as $20,000 — these weapons also travel significantly slower and are much easier to intercept. However, Iran's missile and drone fire forces Israel to expend valuable air defenses, adding to a growing financial toll. At the lower end, a single Iron Dome interceptor costs some $50,000. A missile launched from the Arrow-3 system, which can intercept incoming targets in space, costs several million dollars. US officials said American forces in the region have helped to shoot down Iranian missiles aimed at Israel, but they have said that Washington is not involved in offensive operations. Israeli officials announced the start of "Operation Rising Lion," aimed at degrading Iran's nuclear program, last Friday. Israeli fighter jets have carried out widespread airstrikes across Iran, targeting its nuclear facilities and top scientists, in addition to other military targets, such as Tehran's missile launchers, weapons production sites, air defenses, and senior commanders. The operation could derail President Donald Trump's efforts to reach a new nuclear deal with Iran. Tehran argues that its nuclear program is for civilian use only. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long pushed for a military approach to deal with what he describes as an existential threat. Read the original article on Business Insider
