close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • Were Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities damaged in Israeli strikes?
    news

    Were Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities damaged in Israeli strikes?

    Vaseline Posted on

    Israel’s air force struck a dozen targets in Iran used to produce solid fuel for long-range ballistic missiles as part of its military retaliation against the Islamic Republic, severely damaging Tehran’s ability to replenish its supplies, it said reported on Saturday evening. .

    The targets hit were advanced equipment that Iran could not produce on its own and had to be purchased from China. Walla reported. The targets were a crucial part of Iran’s ballistic missile program. Walla quoted three anonymous Israeli sources.

    An American researcher said an Israeli airstrike on Saturday hit a building that was part of Iran’s defunct nuclear weapons development program, and he and another researcher said facilities used to mix solid fuel for missiles were also hit.

    The assessments based on commercial satellite images were conducted separately by David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector, and Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at CNA, a Washington think tank.

    They told Reuters that Israel struck buildings in Parchin, a huge military complex near Tehran. According to Eveleth, Israel also hit Khojir, a sprawling rocket production site near Tehran.

    A screenshot shows an Israeli Air Force plane, which the Israeli military says is taking off to carry out attacks on Iran, from a handout video released on October 26, 2024 (credit: IDF)

    The Iranian military said Israeli warplanes used “very light nuclear warheads” to attack border radar systems in the provinces of Ilam, Khuzestan and around Tehran.

    In posts on

    The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency and U.S. intelligence say Iran halted the program in 2003. Iran denies that the country is pursuing nuclear weapons.

    Albright, head of the Institute for Science and International Security research group, gained access to the program’s files for a book after they were stolen from Tehran by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service in 2018.

    Regarding X, he said that the archives showed that Iran kept important testing equipment in Taleghan 2.

    Stay up to date with the latest news!

    Subscribe to the Jerusalem Post newsletter

    Iran may have removed key materials before the airstrike, he said, but “even if no equipment had been left in the building” the building would have provided “intrinsic value” for future nuclear weapons-related activities.

    Albright told Reuters that commercial satellite images from Parchin showed Israel damaged three buildings about 1,000 feet (320 meters) from Taleghan 2, including two that had solid ballistic missile fuel mixed in.

    He did not reveal which commercial company he obtained the images from.

    Eveleth said an image from Parchin from Planet Labs, a commercial satellite company, showed Israel destroying three solid-fuel mixing buildings for ballistic missiles and a warehouse in the sprawling complex.

    Images from Planet Labs also showed that an Israeli strike destroyed two buildings in the Khojir complex where solid fuel for ballistic missiles was mixed, he said.

    According to the image reviewed by Reuters, the buildings were surrounded by high sand berms. Such structures are related to the production of rockets and are designed to prevent an explosion in a building from detonating flammable materials in nearby structures.

    “Israel says they targeted buildings housing solid fuel blenders,” Eveleth said. “These industrial mixers are difficult to make and are exported. Iran has imported many of them over the years at high cost, and will likely find them difficult to replace.”

    With a limited operation, he said, Israel may have dealt a significant blow to Iran’s ability to mass-produce missiles and made it more difficult for a future Iranian missile attack to breach Israel’s missile defenses.

    “The attacks appear to be very accurate,” he said.

    Axios reported that Israel has destroyed 12 “planetary mixers” used to produce solid fuel for long-range ballistic missiles, citing three unnamed Israeli sources as saying this will seriously harm Iran’s ability to renew its missile stockpile and could deter further massive rocket attacks against Israel. Israel.

    Israeli sources also stated that four S-300 attacked air defense batteries located in strategic locations protecting nuclear and energy facilities in Tehran during the operation. A drone production factory and a facility in the Parchin military complex were also attacked, the latter of which had a history of nuclear weapons research and development activities.

    Additional reports of attacks

    The Arab independent online newspaper Elaf reported that Israel had attacked a secret ballistic missile factory in Iran, destroying a large number of heavy fuel mixers used to power the Kheibar and Haj Qasem missiles – both of which were fired by Iran into Israel early this month. The report also claimed that the attacked S-300 air defense batteries were Russian-made and destroyed radars powering these and other systems in Syria and Iraq.

    According to the report, the ballistic missile factory was completely destroyed. A source said this Elaf that it was the “backbone of Iran’s missile industry” and that Israel had “retired” it from service, also reporting that each heavy fuel mixer destroyed was estimated to cost at least $2 million and that approximately twenty mixers of this type were destroyed.

    While Walla reported that production to repair such equipment would reportedly take at least a year, informed sources about Iran’s missile industry said Elaf that it would take at least two years to put the destroyed factory back into use.

    Iranian and Israeli officials have confirmed this New York Times that Israel had attacked the defenses of the Bandar Imam Khomeini petrochemical complex in Khuzestan province; in the main economic port Bandar Imam Khomeini, next door; and at the Abadan oil refinery.

    “Israel is sending a clear message to us,” Hamid Hosseini, an expert on Iran’s oil and gas industry and member of the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce, told the Times. “This could have very serious economic consequences for Iran, and now that we understand what is at stake, we must act wisely and not allow tensions to continue.”

    Sources said The Jerusalem Post that the estimated projection was six months to a year.

    In total, more than 100 Israeli aircraft took part in the attack on Iranian targets, stating that their mission was to hit the Islamic Republic’s most advanced anti-aircraft systems and develop air superiority there for any future IAF operations – in such a way One way that Israeli fighter jets could in the future even fly at relatively low altitude in Tehran’s own airspace.

    Estimates say it will take many more days to assess the damage caused by the attacks.



    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like