It is reported that Israel has been attacked. 2 or 3 cruise missiles were fired in our direction, as well as a surface-to-surface missile. All of them were intercepted away from the Israeli border. The Israeli Hez (Arrow) anti-missile system was also involved in the interception.
The IDF has authorized the release of information that it has ships in the Red Sea collecting information and defending our territory along with US Navy ships.
That’s all that has more or less been published. Let us now try to supplement this information with other known facts.
The long-range cruise missiles possessed by the Houthis have been made public in recent years when the Houthis used them against Saudi Arabia. They are also a type of surface-to-surface missile, in other words, they are launched from a ground base and hit ground targets.
Why, then, did the IDF spokesman emphasize the distinction by saying that there were cruise missiles and surface-to-surface missiles?
The reason appears to be that the surface-to-surface missile launched was a long-range ballistic missile.
The examples of such missiles that we are all familiar with are the Scud missiles and the Al Hussein missiles that Saddam Hussein used to attack Israel during the Gulf War. Iran’s Shihab missiles are also ballistic missiles. Israel’s Hez anti-missile system — both Hez-2 and Hez-3 — are precisely designed to intercept such missiles, which explains the IDF spokesman’s statement that the Hez system was also involved in the interception of the missile. Thank G-d, the Hez system provides an excellent response against such missiles.
And what about cruise missiles?
These missiles do not fly on a ballistic trajectory. They travel very close to the surface, sometimes at an altitude of only a few tens of meters, and are capable of traveling great distances in this way. Iran has developed similar cruise missiles too. It has been known to supply them to the Houthis. In fact, in a recent attack in which a US ship shot down missiles from Yemen, it was cruise missiles that it shot down.
So, who intercepted the cruise missiles now?
The IDF spokesman did not say so. At the moment, perhaps for operational security reasons and a desire to deprive our enemies of information that could help them plan their next attack, it has not been published exactly how these missiles were shot down.
How could this have been done?
I have several hypotheses:
1. Israel has previously repeatedly reported that it possesses the world’s most advanced multilevel missile defense system, including for the interception of cruise missiles — “David’s Sling” (also called “Magic Wand”). It is possible that such systems, were deployed in the south of the country and carried out a successful interception.
2. As mentioned above, the IDF has authorized the publication of information that its ships are in the Red Sea helping to defend Israel. According to many Israeli publications that have appeared in the media over the years, every Israeli ship is equipped with Barak SAMs with the ability to intercept cruise missiles. The most advanced Barak-8 SAMs, which, by the way, were recently sold to India in a colossal deal worth billions of dollars, are especially good at this.
3. It is possible that this interception was carried out by the Air Force (it is more complicated, but also possible).
4. It is possible that US ships intercepted the cruise missiles — this is a less likely possibility as in that case the US would have already announced it.
Either way, at the time of writing this review, the IDF is keeping the details of the interception in secret.