As Israel continues to pummel nuclear and military sites in Iran, the Iranians have repeatedly fired missiles as well as drones at residential areas in Israel. The scenes of destruction in Bat Yam, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Bnei Brak demonstrate the level of damage that these missiles can cause, and that they have the potential to kill many people.
The American media have consistently used a misnomer when describing the Israeli interceptions of the Iranian missiles, attributing them to the Iron Dome air defense system. But the systems used to bring down the Iranian ballistic missiles, which move much faster and higher than the kinds of rockets fired from Gaza, are actually other ones.
There is also the question of what options the Israelis have to avoid the destruction being caused by these missiles.
One resident of Efrat, a city with relatively new buildings, told Ami that all of the buildings in town, as far as he knew, had safe rooms or bomb shelters. Meanwhile, in Yerushalayim and Tel Aviv, whether or not a building has a safe space depends on how old it is and if it was remodeled. In other cities, such as the northeastern Arab city of Tamra, where an Iranian missile killed four members of one family, there are no public bomb shelters at all.
What is different about these missiles?
Iranian missiles, of various sorts, have a longer range and a larger payload—that is, the explosives that detonate at their target—than anything that Hamas has used. They are also designed to fly a greater distance than those used by Hezbollah.
Iranian ballistic missiles can travel as far as 1,200 miles (2,000 km), allowing them to target Israel despite the distance between the two countries. While at least one Iranian missile is believed to have an approximately 3,000-pound (1,400 kg) warhead, most of their larger rockets have warheads of 1,500-pounds (650 kg) maximum. The bigger ones fired by Hamas are believed to have almost half that amount of explosives.
Iran’s missiles are also flying higher and faster than those coming in from Gaza. They take only a few minutes to travel the 1,000 miles between Iran and Israel.
How many ballistic missiles does Iran have?
The exact number of Iranian missiles is unclear. In 2022, General Kenneth McKenzie, then head of US Central Command, estimated that they had over 3,000 ballistic missiles. But precise data are hard to come by due to the secrecy involved.
An additional question is how many of them are still functional after the Israeli attacks. There have been reports that Iran planned to launch 1,000 missiles at Israel after they were attacked. But they began with two waves of 100 each instead (with more since then), apparently because some of their missiles had been destroyed but also because the top personnel who would have ordered the launches had been killed.
Their arsenal is divided into liquid-fueled and solid-fueled missiles, which makes a huge difference. Missiles that use liquid fuel, a large part of Iran’s stockpile, must be fueled on the launch pad shortly before use, usually using stationary equipment, which makes them vulnerable to attack. That is one reason why so many Iranian attacks on Israel have occurred at night, as fueling them in the dark allows the teams to take better cover.
Solid-fuel missiles, by contrast, can be fueled and stored for years, and they can also be placed on mobile launchers, allowing them to be hidden much more effectively.
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