Iranian Missiles Are Driving Israeli, American And Arab Air Defense Operators Crazy

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Iranian missile and drone strikes became much more effective recently, starting from March 29, when the strategic Prince Sultan Air Base at the heart of Saudi Arabia was hit in an attack that left 12 American troops wounded and several aircraft destroyed or damaged.

More impacts were reported across the region in following days, from the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, all the way to Israel, where impacts were reported in the refineries near the city of Haifa in the north, in the suburbs of the city of Tel Aviv in the center, and close to the port city of Eilat in the south.

Videos posted to social networks showed several cases where air defenses completely failed, and others where it was clear that the operators were hopelessly firing all interceptors at their disposal. In some cases, the interceptors were detonated right after launch, likely because the operators fired them hastily.

These strikes left little doubt about the fact that the air defense networks in these countries are getting less effective for a wide range of reasons.

Going back to the start of the war more than a month ago, it was clear that both the United States and Israel entered the confrontation with the belief that they could neutralize Iran’s missile and drone stockpiles almost completely in a short period of time. This has since proven to be very wrong, and all claims about destroying 80 or even 90 percent of the Islamic Republic’s stockpiles were clearly a stretch.

Just two weeks into the war, reports of shortage of interceptors, practically in Israel, began to emerge. The Israeli military swiftly denied this.

Later reports revealed, however, that the Israeli military began limiting its use of its most advanced missile interceptors, in favor of on upgraded but less capable systems

Israeli air defenses, long regarded as among the most sophisticated in the world, leaned heavily on the Arrow system to counter Iranian ballistic missiles at the start of the war. However, according to one report by The Wall Street Journal, the Israelis are now conserving these high-end interceptors, turning instead to enhanced versions of David’s Sling and even Iron Dome for threats they were not originally designed to handle.

An analytic report released earlier by The Jerusalem Post concluded that the David’s Sling, while highly effective against shorter range missiles, has failed against heavier ones.

Similar shortages were reported in other other Middle Eastern countries, from Jordan, to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE, with reports of the U.S. rushing interceptors and air defenses from South Korea and Europe into the region to make up for depleted stockpiles and even heavy losses.

While upper tier air defenses were hit in these Arabian countries, reportedly including four THAAD anti-missile systems, there is no indication that the Israeli air defense network took any losses.

This shows that the degradation in the performance of air defenses in Israel and the rest of the region was not just caused by depleted interceptor stockpiles, or damage to air defenses systems, but also by the pressure from never ending Iranian missile and drone strikes.

Operating around the hour for over a month now, it is guaranteed that these sophisticated, yet sensitive, systems are breaking down more often.

More importantly is how this pressure is also reflecting on the psychological status of air defense operators in Israel and other Middle Eastern countries.

The operators are facing intense fatigue from continuous shifts, while making rapid, high-stakes decisions that directly determined whether incoming missiles would be intercepted. They carry the heavy burden of knowing that any mistake could result in deaths.

Although specific data from the ongoing war remains limited, experience from previous conflicts involving Israel shows that air defense operators are at significant risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to prolonged high-stress operations.

Adding to the mental strain is the stark contradiction between American and Israeli claims of having wiped out Iran’s stockpiles and the reality these operators are facing every day — where they continue to endure multiple launches from Iran, even as the capabilities of the systems they are using steadily diminish.

All in all, it is safe to assume that the air defenses in Israel and other Middle Eastern countries involved in the war on Iran are becoming less and less effective, for reasons that go beyond the technical side. As the war drags on, Iranian missile and drone attacks will likely become more and more lethal.

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