What are the missiles in Iran’s arsenal and how does Israel counter them?

CNN
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According to those countries’ governments, Iran launched its largest attack yet on Israel late Tuesday, firing 180 ballistic missiles, most of which appeared to have been intercepted by the missile defense systems of Israel, the United States and Jordan.

The airstrike, far more serious than a similar attack in April, has exacerbated an already extremely tense situation in the Middle East, where a dangerous regional conflict is igniting.

Here’s a look at Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities and the defense systems used by Israeli and other forces in the region.

According to a 2021 report by the Missile Threat Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Tehran has thousands of ballistic and cruise missiles of varying ranges.

Exact numbers for each type of missile are unknown. But U.S. Air Force Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told Congress in 2023 that Iran had “over 3,000” ballistic missiles, according to a report this year by the Iran Watch website on the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.

Ballistic missile trajectories take them out of or near the boundaries of Earth’s atmosphere before the warhead payload separates from the missile that carried it into the air and plummets back into the atmosphere and toward its target.

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Weapons experts who analyzed verified social media videos from the crime scene told CNN that Iran used variants of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile in the recent attack on Israel.

According to Patrick Senft, a research coordinator at Armament Research Services (ARES), the Shahab-3 is the basis for all of Iran’s medium-range ballistic missiles, which use liquid fuel.

According to the Missile Threat Project, the Shahab-3 entered service in 2003, can carry a warhead of 760 to 1,200 kilograms (1,675 to 2,645 pounds) and can be fired from both mobile launchers and silos.

Iran Watch says the latest variants of the Shahab-3, the Ghadr and Emad missiles, have an accuracy of up to 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet) from their intended targets.

Iranian media reported that Tehran used a new missile, the Fattah-1, in the attacks. Tehran describes the Fattah-1 as a “hypersonic” missile – meaning it flies at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound (about 3,800 miles per hour, 6,100 kilometers per hour).

But analysts point out that almost all ballistic missiles reach hypersonic speeds during their flight, especially when they are heading towards their targets.

The term “hypersonic” is often used to refer to so-called hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles, sophisticated weapons capable of maneuvering in Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. This makes it extremely difficult to shoot such weapons.

According to Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who wrote on the subject last year, Fattah-1 is none of these.

Hinz says the Fattah-1 appears to have a warhead on a “maneuverable re-entry vehicle” that allows it to make adjustments to evade missile defenses during a short portion of its dive toward its target.

Still, this capability would be an improvement over Iran’s previous missiles, Hinz says.

But analysts were skeptical that Iran would have used the new missile for the first time on Tuesday night.

“It’s one of their newest ballistic missiles, and they have a lot to lose by using it,” said Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army senior ordnance technician.

“Israel would get an idea of ​​its capabilities just from the deployment. There’s also the possibility that it won’t work, giving Israel an even better idea of ​​its capabilities. They get free propaganda and risk nothing by saying it was used.”

Israel operates a range of systems to deter attacks of all kinds, from ballistic missiles with trajectories that take them out of the atmosphere to low-flying cruise missiles and rockets.

Particular attention was paid to the highly effective Iron Dome system, which is used to combat incoming rockets and artillery weapons.

But the Iron Dome is the lowest layer of Israel’s missile defense and not the system that would have been used to combat the ballistic missiles fired on Tuesday evening, according to the country’s Missile Defense Organization (IMDO).

The next step up the missile defense ladder, according to IMDO, is David’s Slingshot, which protects against short- and medium-range threats.

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David’s Sling, a joint project between Israel’s RAFAEL Advanced Defense System and U.S. defense giant Raytheon, uses hit-to-kill Stunner and SkyCeptor kinetic interceptors to engage targets up to 186 miles away, according to the Missile Threat Project at CSIS to turn off.

Above David’s Sling are the Israeli Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, developed jointly with the United States.

The Arrow 2 uses fragmentation warheads to destroy incoming ballistic missiles in their final phase – as they fly toward their targets – in the upper atmosphere, according to CSIS.

The Arrow 2 has a range of 56 miles and a maximum altitude of 32 miles, according to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, which called the Arrow 2 an evolution of the U.S. Patriot missile defense that Israel once used in that capacity.

Meanwhile, Arrow 3 uses hit-to-kill technology to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in space before they re-enter the atmosphere on their way to targets.

During the attack on Tuesday evening, the US military said it fired at least 12 anti-missile munitions against the incoming Iranian missiles.

The U.S. response came from the Navy’s guided-missile destroyers USS Cole and USS Bulkeley, which were operating in the eastern Mediterranean, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

The Pentagon did not provide details about the interceptors used, but the US destroyers are equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system, with interceptor missiles that can attack and destroy incoming ballistic missiles in the mid-course or final phase.

Jordan’s air force also intercepted Iranian missiles on Tuesday evening, a Jordanian official said, but no details were given.

In an Iranian attack on Israel in April, Israeli and US warplanes shot down much of the incoming Iranian ammunition. But Iran carried out that attack largely with slower-flying drones, which were much easier for warplanes to intercept than the ballistic warheads that struck vertically at targets in Israel.

CNN’s Gianluca Mezzofiore and Haley Britzky contributed to this report.