Almost all the ballistic missiles and drones Iran launched at Israel in an unprecedented attack late Saturday were intercepted and failed to meet their mark, according to Israeli and American officials, highlighting the formidable and multi-layered missile defense deployed by the two allied partners.
Most of the more than 300 Iranian munitions were intercepted before they got to Israel, more than 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) from their launch points.
The US Navy and US warplanes shot down multiple ballistic missiles, as well as other Iranian ordnance, officials told CNN’s Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon.
Israel’s Iron Dome system, the bottom layer of Israel’s missile defense, uses a command-and-control system that quickly calculates whether an incoming projectile poses a threat or is likely to hit an unpopulated area. If the rocket does pose a threat, the Iron Dome fires missiles from the ground to destroy it in the air. There are at least 10 Iron Dome batteries in Israel.
Other Israeli missile defense systems include David’s Sling, which uses Stunner and SkyCeptor kinetic hit-to-kill interceptors to take out targets as far as 186 miles away, and Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, jointly developed with the United States, which intercept incoming ballistic missiles in space.
Israel also has state-of-the-art fighter aircraft, including F-35I stealth jets that it has used to shoot down drones and cruise missiles before, according to news reports.
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