Israel running out of anti-ballistic missile interceptors – report

After more than 400 Iranian ballistic missiles were launched towards Israel since Friday, Israel is reportedly running low on high-altitude interceptors, which have been key to blunting Tehran’s attacks.

By World Israel News Staff

The Israeli military’s stockpile of a key interceptor missile is running low, a US official has claimed, following waves of Iranian ballistic missile attacks.

Iran launched over 400 ballistic missiles towards Israeli territory since last Friday, with 90% of the incoming projectiles intercepted en route.

However, roughly 40 missiles landed in Israeli territory, killing 24 people and injuring more than 800.

Israel now estimates that Iran may have up to 1,800 ballistic missiles remaining in its arsenal, posing a challenge for the IDF’s air defense network.

While the country’s Iron Dome system dominated the headlines during the rocket and missile attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon after October 7, 2023, the Iron Dome missiles are limited to low-altitude, short-range intercepts, making them less effective against Iran’s ballistic missile attacks.

Medium-range systems, including David’s Sling and the Arrow-2, do offer some protection against ballistic missile attacks; however, the largest, exo-atmospheric Iranian projectiles, such as the Shahab-5, require interceptors with longer ranges capable of space-based interceptions.

The Arrow-3, with a range of over 1,000 kilometers (625 miles), has featured heavily in Israel’s defense against Iran’s attacks over the past week.

But according to a Wall Street Journal report, published on Wednesday morning, which cited an American official, Israel’s reserve of Arrow-3 interceptors is dwindling, fueling concerns in both Israel and the US about the Jewish state’s ability to cope with future attacks.

That concern has prompted the United States to expand its defensive deployments in Israel, begun with THAAD and Patriot missile batteries dispatched by the Biden administration and expanded by President Donald Trump.

But even with American help, warns Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, Israel will be hard-pressed to contend with continuing ballistic attacks from Iran.

“Neither the US nor the Israelis can continue to sit and intercept missiles all day,” Karako told the Journal. “The Israelis and their friends need to move with all deliberate haste to do whatever needs to be done, because we cannot afford to sit and play catch.”

To alleviate the problem, the Israel Air Force has targeted the mobile ballistic missile launcher units used by Iran to carry out its attacks.

As of Tuesday, the IDF claimed that roughly 40% of Iran’s launcher units had been destroyed.

While this limits the rate at which Iran can launch missiles towards Israel, it does not reduce Iran’s total stockpile of projectiles, leaving the Arrow-3 shortage a lingering problem for Israel.