It is estimated that Iran and its proxies lobbed more than 300 aerial munitions towards Israel on the night of April 13, including more than 150 one-way attack drones, 30 land-attack cruise missiles and 100 medium-range ballistic missiles.Iran said its drone and missile strikes — its first direct attack against Israeli territory — were in response to an April 1 attack by Israel that killed senior figures in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at a facility in Damascus. Jordan, France, the UK and US all pitched in to defeat the barrage, with a senior US defence official broadly noting that the coordination was done at the military-to-military level. Israel Defence Forces (IDF) officials said 99% of the incoming weapons were intercepted and destroyed and damage proved minimal — an unprecedented aerial defence success.Israel mounted its defence with Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 surface-to-air interceptors and F-35 fighters (along with Iron Dome, David's Sling and Patriot and Iron Beam defences).The IDF said that 25 of the 30 cruise missiles sent by Iran were shot down outside the country. Many drones also crashed, before even reaching their targets.The shortest distance from Iran to Israel is about 1,000 km (620 miles) across Iraq, Syria and Jordan.Drones and cruise missiles follow a flat trajectory and most of the ballistic missiles, which are fired on an arcing trajectory that uses gravity to reach very high speeds.Meanwhile, the US estimates that USS Arleigh Burke and USS Carney destroyed between four and six Iranian ballistic missiles, while a Patriot battery in Erbil, Iraq downed one ballistic missile.British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said RAF Typhoon jets shot down “a number” of Iranian drones during the barrage.Additional RAF fighter jets and refueling tankers have been deployed for the counter-Islamic State mission in Iraq and Syria, which has also freed up US air assets to focus on intercepting Iranian threats.However, it would be US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles, that would shoot down most of the incoming weapons.F-15Es from two squadrons shot down about 70 attack drones, according to The Washington Post..US President Joe Biden spoke with members of the F-15 squadrons to “commend them for their exceptional airmanship and skill in defending Israel from an unprecedented aerial attack by Iran,” the White House said.“The close cooperation between the US military and the IDF has led to the formation of a strong coalition that proved itself last night in the face of Iran’s aerial attack,” the IDF said in an April 14 statement.Jordan — which has a peace treaty with Israel — also intercepted flying objects that entered its airspace to secure the safety of its citizens, a Jordanian cabinet statement said.Jordan has advanced radar systems and air-to-air missiles, adding that its F-16 pilots had shown they could operate effectively at night.The US coordinated the air defence for the coalition forces at the Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, where Air Forces Central (AFCENT) boss Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich serves as the regional air defense commander.Biden ordered the movement of extra F-15s and destroyers — which carry the highly-capable AEGIS air defence system — to the region in the past week. The move proved to be a good one.In an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine on April 14, Grynkewich declined to discuss Iran’s attack. However, Grynkewich described how the CAOC typically coordinates air defence.“We take whatever assets we have that are in theatre … under our tactical control or in a direct support role across the joint force and the coalition, and we stitch them together so that we can synchronize the fires and effects when we get into that air defence fight,” Grynkewich said.In the future, the US wants to increase collaboration in air and missile defence, which has been a long-standing goal for CENTCOM, he said..“We’re trying to stitch together partners in the region who share a perspective of a threat, share concern of the threats to stability in the region — which primarily emanate from Iran with a large number of ballistic missiles — and be in a position where we’re able to share information, share threat warning."For anything that got past this first line of defence, Israel used its Aerial Defence Array — the three-tier umbrella of missile defence systems in place since October 7 — apparently to good effect.The highest tier is Arrow, used to physically intercept long-range projectiles. It is thought that Arrow dealt with most of the ballistic missiles aimed at Israel.Dramatic footage which appears to show one of these missiles being shot down outside the Earth's atmosphere suggests that Arrow 3 — the most advanced of these systems, using exoatmospheric hypersonic anti-ballistic missiles — was employed.The next element in the tier, David's Sling, would have been used to protect against short-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, taking them out as far as 300 km (186 miles) away.Finally, the Iron Dome system — which is designed to intercept unguided rockets heading for residential areas —has recently been upgraded to deal with the threat from drones.A few of the ballistic missiles got through and struck Israeli territory, Rear Adm Hagari said.One of them "lightly hit" the Nevatim air force base in the Negev desert in southern Israel. Rear Adm Hagari said the base was "still functioning."Two US officials told the BBC's US partner CBS news that five ballistic missiles evaded air defences and impacted on Israeli territory.Four landed in the base — where the country's F-35 fighter jets are based — which the officials said was Iran's primary target.One missile hit a runway, another hit an empty aircraft hangar and one hit a hangar that was out of use. A fifth ballistic missile seemed to be aimed at a radar site in northern Israel, but missed its target.CENTCOM’s commander from 2016-2019, retired Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel, said Iran’s attack proved integrated air and missile defence “ought to now be an overriding priority” for the entire region.“I hope the Gulf states are taking note of this,” Votel said. “The level of cooperation between Western militaries plus Jordan is a real example that they should be eager to emulate against the Iranian threat."“This is a big deterrent failure for the Iranians,” said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.“That’s the key takeaway from this. But it’s also a moment when I think the Israelis would be under a lot of pressure now to just let the volume go down on this conflict.”— with files from Breaking Defence, Air & Space Forces Magazine & BBC
