CoElkHunter
AH ambassador
Does Israel have any ballistic missiles in their arsenal? I only see them attacking targets with aircraft.From whence this notion that this was a "cheap" Iranian attempt?
These were not Hamas rockets fired in the general direction of wherever. The cheapest were that Shahad jet powered drones with which Iran is supplying Russia. According to IDF sources, the Iranians launched 185 of these. They are very long range/endurance and very accurate. They are also very different from a Hamas rocket. Fortunately, common air defense systems under professional command and control, can deal with them. They also launched 36 cruise missiles which are equivalent to our Tomahawk. I have no idea what the equivalent cost for one of these domestically developed weapons is to Iran, but a Tomahawk costs the US taxpayer approx $2 mil each. Lastly they also launched launched 110 surface to surface ballistic missiles. A large proportion of these were most likely Sjjill MRBM missiles with a range of 2000 Km. They are the newest missile in the inventory and the only MRBM in Iran's armory capable of reaching Israel. The Sejjil is a two-stage solid fuel ballistic missile with a launch weigh exceeding 40,000 lbs. It is both conventional and nuclear capable. It is a very sophisticated weapon similar to our Pershing. I have seen no cost estimates, but such a weapon would be very expensive.
In short this was an extraordinary effort, militarily and financially, on the part of the Iranian regime. That will make the utter failure of this attack all the more sobering to the leadership in Tehran.