Researchers have used commercial satellite imagery to identify more than 30 points where Iranian missiles appear to have impacted an air base in southern Israel.

Based on preliminary calculations of what happened at Nevatim, Lewis believes a substantial number of Iranian missiles may have reached their targets.

Lewis notes that although over 30 missiles landed inside the base perimeter, the damage caused was still somewhat limited. That’s notable because Iran is believed to have used some of its most advanced Fattah missiles.

  • CreatEnglish
    6·
    2 months ago

    Is it feasible that there interceptor systems saw they weren’t a threat from the trajectory and prioritized those that were? I mean the article states that they might have prioritized defending the city over the airbase, but I don’t know how much manual decision making is likely to be involved as I don’t know the flight/travel times. Or Maybe the defense system is has target areas pre-prioritized?

    I mean a hole in a runway is somewhat inconvenient, but overall an easy fix. A destroyed hangar less so (but also depends on what’s in it, if anything). Casualties in a city are a different category, obviously.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      I haven’t seen any report of missiles targeting populated areas. Only military targets. So I think we can scratch that from the equation. Either they let everything that was targeting the base fall or they were defending it and some got through. Doesn’t make sense that they intentionally let some hit the hangars and runways if they were defending the base. I doubt they can tell exactly where every projectile is gonna fall. It’s possible that they focused more on the other base that was being targeted. But I find it unlikely that they didn’t defend this base given they use it for their F35 fleet. At the very least there could have been enough damage to put it out of service for a while.