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.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    7 months ago

    The Iron Dome is looking pretty rusty… I wonder how much Likud diverted to private accounts in the Caymans.

    • HuddaBudda@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      23
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      7 months ago

      That’s the real story at the bottom of this mess.

      • Israel was warned about the attack a month before it happened.

      • 4 billion dollars in US funding that was supposed to go to Israeli defense somehow didn’t work.

      • US is having to privately ship weapons to Israel behind congress and senate approval.

    • MysticDaedra@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      The Iron Dome only protects against short-range rockets. Israel’s Arrow and Arrow II Endospheric and Exospheric anti-missile defense systems are what most of the missiles that were intercepted by Israel were shot down with.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        7 months ago

        It was built starting in 2011 - we knew small drones were a thing long before then. You’re thinking of consumer drones but drones have been a real military concept since at least the mid nineties.

    • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      How so? Most targets were either ballistic missiles that iron dome doesn’t intercept (David’s sling and Arrow intercept missiles and ICBMs) or shot down long before reaching Israel.

          • Count042@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            7 months ago

            Most targets were either ballistic missiles that iron dome doesn’t intercept (David’s sling and Arrow intercept missiles and ICBMs)

            What do you think ICBM stands for again?

            • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              7 months ago

              Inter continent ballistic missiles. A specific class of missiles, which were not the only ones used in the attack.

              Inter continent ballistic missiles. A specific class of missiles, which were not the only ones used in the attack.

              Here, I replied twice so you can ignore one of them like you did my reply. You can even be more pandentic about one of them, then ignore that and read the second one.