As part of an attack against Israel, the country of Iran has launched a wave of drones.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s armed forces were ready.

“I established a clear principle – whoever hurts us, we hurt him. We will protect ourselves from any threat and we will do so with coolness and determination.”

An IDF spokesman said:

“A short while ago, Iran launched drones from its territory and the territory of its agents towards the territory of the State of Israel. We are monitoring the threat in the airspace. Talking about a threat that requires several hours to reach Israeli territory.

The IDF and the Air Force are implementing the well-planned plans they are preparing to deal with. As part of preparations, GPS services are not available in several locations across the country. The disruption occurred in a concentrated and temporary manner”

More on this as it develops.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
Twitter

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

56 COMMENTS

  1. ATM (21:45 GMT ) it appears to be drones only.

    I fear Iran is launching drones first to occupy Israel’s air defences and then will launch ballistic / cruise missiles … I guess we have to wait and see

  2. Been watching how this has been playing out, last night (as not reported by the majority of the British media) Hezballah launched 40 missiles and 2 UAVs into Israel they were intercepted by iron dome.
    Today the Iranians hijacked a ship in the straits of Hormuz on route to India (the second time they have done so) claiming the Portuguese ship was Israeli. I did wonder why, it could be a subtle message that any retaliation over the pending attack (no longer pending) on Israeli, will see the Straits closed down inflicting economic hardship on the entire world. In a nutshell “This is between us and the jews”
    Just read that drones have been launched from Yemen and no doubt as the flight time for UAVs from Iran to Israel, I would suspect their arrival will coincide with launches from Syria and Lebanon.

    Going back to the missile launches last night by Hezballah , I wonder if they were used to pin point the locations of the Iron Dome battery’s thus allowing for their targeting by Iranian proxies as well as the brucie bonus of depleting stocks

    On the otherside of the coin, by advertising the launch of UAVs from iran, I wonder if the Mullahs are playing the go political game (as seen across the middle east) of acting hard, by giving the impression they are punishing Israel, but giving them enough time to knock most of the incoming out of the sky.
    But hey It’s the Middle East who know what those goats lovers are thinking.

    • As reported by Al Jazeera:

      Jordan’s air defence ready to shoot down any Iranian aircraft that violate its airspace
      Reuters, citing two regional security sources, reports that Jordan’s air defences are ready to intercept and shoot down any Iranian drones or aircraft that violate its airspace. The sources said the army was also in a state of high alert, and radar systems were monitoring drone activity.

      • Jordan is IMHO probably the nearest thing to a sensible country in the Middle East. Turfed the PLO out when they tried to take over and manages to forcefully stay out of most of the worst of the Trouble.

      • Noticed Rishi Sunak stating harsh words to Iran….bet they are quaking in their boats after the Tories destroyed our military. The Tories are joke..and Rishi well he’s not my PM. I voted for this shower at the last election…what a joke our military have become.

  3. I suspect they will seek to exhaust missile stocks using large wave drone attacks, then use the deadlier missiles at a later stage. UK could help by upping typhoon numbers in Cyprus which could intercept some of them over Syria.

    • RAF tanker took off from Akrotiri a couple of hours ago and flew into Turkish airspace (watched it on flightradar24) – transponder is off now.

      • Surprised to hear Sunak’s recent statement, saying that he is working with allies in seeking to de-escalate. I would have expected a more firm response from western allies. Maybe a limited missile strike on some launch sites within Iranian territory.

        Maybe that will only come if they seek to close the strait of Hormuz.

        • I think they might dangle that as a threat – i.e. any Western / Arab countries help Israel and we close the Strait. Depending on how all this turns out this might actually help Ukraine as I imagine Iran’s Shahed drone and armaments factories are now a primary target.

        • That might be the case if Israel was actually a UK ally, since it’s just the US then their won’t be a western response.

          • Sorry Jim, it appears the UK and Jordan joined the US in downing the motley collection of drones, cruise missiles and missiles.

            CNN: US and UK jets intercept and shoot down missiles on route to Israel.

            Israeli officials said “jets from US, Jordanian and UK militaries shot down dozens of Iranian drones headed toward Israel”, without disclosing how many were shot down or the precise locations.

            Security sources told Reuters that US and UK forces operating from bases in the region shot down a number of Iranian drones in southern Syria and Iraq near the Jordanian border.

            Jets from Jordan’s airforce downed dozens of Iranian drones flying across northern and central Jordan heading to Israel, two regional security sources said in a dramatic show of support from Amman, which has heavily criticized Israel’s prosecution of its war against Hamas in Gaza”.

            Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked “The allies of Israel for helping to foil the Iranian attack”.

      • Gareth wrote:
        “”RAF tanker took off from Akrotiri a couple of hours ago and flew into Turkish airspace (watched it on flightradar24) – transponder is off now.””

        Just read that the UK is sending Typhoons based in Cyprus to help defend Israel. I hope this acts as a spur to accelerate the development and then deployment of the new ECRA MK2 ASEA radar

    • Given Israel’s ample stock of nuclear weapons I suggest not. Very bad idea launch any kind of mass attack on a nuclear armed power but especially ballistic missiles. I dare say the reason they are using ridiculously slow drones that are well advertised is for this very reason.

  4. I may be a Cynic but why did Netanyahu pick now to attack an Iranian Embassy and didn’t even tell the US what he was doing ? Iran was doing what it usually does and fighting via its Proxies, now it’s direct and that is really bad.

    Anyone with a brain cell wouldn’t have deliberately prodded Iran directly, now they are hitting back, Israel will quite rightly defend itself and then retaliate so they are now in a Tit for Tat direct War with Iran.

    If I were a betting man the drones are en route and the Iranians will launch a wave of IRBMs to hit Israel in synch and then Israel will hit back.

    • The Israelis subscribe to the view that the world wont come to their rescue especially after years of left wing and Islamist propaganda which only paints the jews as the bad guy. So the only people they can trust is themselves.
      So Iran. It is no secret that Tehran has been building up its assets on the countries that surround Israel for a massive attack for a number of years now. We see that with the huge number of arms shipments into the region which due to the US base at Al-Tanf, has seen Iran having to take the longway round in which to send supplies by road. Its why they built a huge underground arms depot at the Imam Ali, it which to be able to store arms shipments on the long haul (and also used as a G1098 for Iranian proxies in the region) Interestingly it was taken out by the US the other month in response to the Iranian attack.
      Israel knows that Iran has already lit the blue touch paper regards that final attack, we see that with the well-co-ordinated protest movement which the Toronto Sun reported has its roots in..iran and with the liberal world on their side, the Mad mullahs know that they can do as they please in which to punish Israel as they see fit. The strike on the Iranian consulate (not embassy) took out Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and a large number of other high ranking Iranian, Syrian and hezballah commanders which took out a lot of the leaders who would lead in any future attack on Israel, so I suppose to the Israelis it was a price worth paying (Whether we like it or not, we are talking of a people facing eradication at the hands of the most intolerant religion on the planet)
      Maybe they think that now (and not during the “lame duck period” for the US. The time between when a new president wins the election (Nov) and when he takes Office (jan) when nothing really gets done) was the best time to precipitate a conflict especially seeing as how the threat from Hamas has virtually been eliminated (I suspect that the Iranian plans for its final solution for Israel included massive missile attacks from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria , Iraq and Yemen. (funny enough they did try to win the election in Jordan the other year via the use of the Muslim brotherhood, but that saw the King take an active part in the election and Iran lost any chance of dragging Amman into their plan of action) with the destruction of a large number of assets in Syria and Iraq after the US took them out. (That Iranian strike was most confusing, as it was inside Jordan and is the supply base for Al-Tanf. Could the mullahs have presumed that with the run down of US forces in the region, that an attack on Tower 22, would result in Al-Tanf beeb closed down. (As I said elsewhere, who knows how the goats lovers think?)
      With top cover provided by the US, and with the Jordanians now showing their cards (Albeit it surreptitiously)  as been against iran. Maybe the Israelis feel they can ride this out. But as I mentioned above, could this be simply a geopolitical play by the Mullahs to act hard in response to the Israel strike. Because when it comes to targets, Iran has a lot more in the form of oil refineries and due to the lack of revenue coming in and the shortfall of funds in which to keep the plebs happy (Iranians have been protesting for years over how the Mullahs would rather spend money on finding its proxies in the region than on its own people) and any serious strike will cripple its cash cow and really set the cat amongst the pigeons regards the public.
      Finally, and a big finally, when it comes to attacks on Embassies and such, the Mullahs in Tehran haven’t much of a leg to stand on seeing they have Ok’d attacks on British, Saudi, German, French, Danish, Swedish and of course the US embassies. I’m not saying 2 wrongs make a right, its just a little something that hasn’t been widely mentioned. 

      • Iran are a bloody nightmare, but as long as they stuck to just using proxies it was manageable. But regardless of anything else Israel essentially poured Petrol on it, the result is that the US, Jordan and U.K. are all directly piling in to shoot down these drones and missiles.
        2 wrongs don’t make a right. But Netanyahu seems blindly intent on making an appalling situation even worse and isn’t listening to anyone.
        He has just got himself off Bidens Naughty step by causing a direct attack on Israel.
        Interestingly Iran is emphasising that this is a limited action in response to Israel’s attack on their consulate.
        One bit of me thinks well that’s a reasonable response “you hit me and I’ve hit you back so shall we just both pack it in”. The other bit of me thinks well, saying this sort of thing may get the west to de escalate things, calm Israel down and avoid Israel attacking Iran directly.

        I’m a bit surprised that they seem to be attacking Jerusalem, quite what happens if they hit the “Rock of the Dome” ! Who knows.

        • The irony of Iran hitting the Al-Aqsa mosque would be compounded by the name of Hamas’s October attack: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

          However the Arab world would blame it on a false-flag Israeli attack and call for Jihad. Even putting aside civilian casualties, very much better that it doesn’t happen.

      • Just had a thought, it looks like Iran is targeting military and intelligence targets, if / when Israel responds it would be great if they could flatten Irans drone factories.
        Piss Putin off as well 😉

      • I lived in the middle East for 23 odd years( mostly on the red sea in israel) and I think you hit the nail on the head almost exactly mate.

    • Hmmm…this has the potential to become a very sporting proposition. Hopefully, the participants exhibit the good sense to cap the escalation at some sub-critical threshold level. Otherwise, the Israelis may perceive full-on drone and missile barrages simultaneously from Houthis, Hezbollah, and the Iranian s as an existential threat to the survival of Israel. That would be the signal for an entirely different ballgame. Free to speculate, having no access to non-public/classified info, however, many articles on nuclear inventories estimate Israeli stockpile at approximately 90 weapons. Would presume that a majority (or perhaps all) are gravity weapons and that the Israelis have integrated the capability into the F-35I fleet by this time. The Israelis probably would be capable of decimating Lebanon, relevant portions of Syria and Yemen and all of Iran, however, not certain the inventory would permit follow-up strikes and a capability of deterring Mad Vlad and the Orcs from a retaliatory strike. Low but not zero probability that this could become quite interesting, in a relatively short timeframe…🤔😳🌍

      • The Daily Telegraph reported in the last hour that RAF Typhoons took off from our base in Cyprus and have shot down a number of drones launched by Iran and bound for Israel.

      • FormerUSAF, Are you are talking about the Samson Option? Israel has been quite open on what it would do. In a quirk the Samson Option is almost the same as what Putini has drawn up for Russia. I don’t think we are anywhere near that.

        The “Samson Option” of the book’s title refers to the nuclear strategy whereby Israel would launch a massive nuclear retaliatory strike if the state itself was being overrun, just as the Biblical figure Samson is said to have pushed apart the pillars of a Philistine temple, bringing down the roof and killing himself..

    • It might have been prompted by the Iranian backed attack on Eilat from its Iraqi proxies on the night of the 31st March. The Israeli attack came not long after on the 1st April. I’d guess Israel’s attack had been planned some time in advance, but the Eilat attack could have been the trigger. The probable target, an Israeli Sa’ar 6 corvette in port, appears to have been more vulnerable than might have been expected, even though the Iranian drone that exploded didn’t quite reach it. There was minor infrastructure damage to the port and under other circumstances you could also call it a sub-threshold attack. Except Israel is on a war footing and isn’t really doing sub-threshold at the moment.

      Ask why the Iranian generals were sat in their embassy in Iraq hours after that drone strike on Eilat. It isn’t hard to guess what the Israelis thought.

      Israel has also learned from drone attack, and the Iron Dome system on the corvette is now switched on and intercepting drones.

    • Iran has been prodding Israel for decades via its proxies, so IMHO direct confrontation was inevitable. So the day has come.

  5. The Israelis had an absolute right to defend themselves and the Iranians are stirring the pot for their own benefit as always. Hammas are absolute animals and need to be destroyed as an organisation root and branch but i can’t help think that the Israelies have screwed this entire situation. You cant just blow up consulates.

    The attacks on them are horrific and unacceptable but the reaction from them looks to be against international law, at least to me, and frankly terrible to watch.

    Imagine if after the Manchester bombing if the British government started bombing all of the catholic areas in NI? Driving people out of their homes and blowing them up because they believe terrorists may be in them whether the owners of the homes wanted them there or not. The world would have gone mental and it would have hardened all sides against each other in the troubles. There dont seem to be any easy or right answers to solve the issue with ease but there are definitely wrong answers. We got peace in the end by deescalation and dialogue not just you kill one of ours we’ll kill two of your,

    The ends dont always justify the means. Responses have to be proportionate and international law is there for a reason. That goes for all sides

    • The Yanks need to just tell the Israeli Parliament that Netanyahu goes or US support does. Blunt and simple. He is a loose cannon that’s getting a lot of folks killed including his own.
      Never understood how they missed the October Attack coming and their response was lethargic.

        • ABCRodney? You are suggesting the US tells a democracy and ally, that their democratically elected Prime Minister must “go”? Dont hold your breath. There’s not enough non-Israeli supporting politicians to make that stick. The Jewish lobby in Washington is far too imbedded for any standing up to Israel for its actions in Gaza or Lebanon.

          Before I finish, I fully supported Israel’s right to defend itself and go after Hamas. The problem is there’s no measured restraint by Israel. They have destroyed the Gaza Strip from what I have seen. Ultimately, it could mean the death of several hundred thousand, at least.

  6. This is different. This is direct state in state attack. No proxies, no state sponsored terror groups.
    this Iran vs Isreal.
    massive escalation.

    • Not a good time for us to be taking ships away from Hormuz. I know Cardigan Bay isn’t a warship, but when we sent it to the Med for a publicity gig, I worried that it might have been needed where it was. We really should have sent a Point to Cyprus instead.

      A couple of months ago Grant Shapps said he thought that the armed forces had sufficient strength because they had been able to do anything he’d asked of them. I’m wondering if he still thinks that.

  7. Watching the news live and thinking…

    Fire hundreds of slow easy to shoot down drones. If none get through you look weak. Can’t see any point to this strategy.

    So are they..

    Firing hundreds of drones and any minute now their about to chuck another hundred ballistic missiles and throw in some cruise missiles?!

    Edge of the seat stuff. Just need some pop corn!

    • I hope the Israelis wipe the bloody floor with them, it’s been a very long time coming.

      The Israelis should go for key nodes and military targets, as said, utterly destroy their ability to build missiles and drones and knock the shit out of their Airforce while they are at it.

      The West ( US Navy let’s face it) should tell Iran that if they attack civilian shipping in the straights of Hormuz, then the gloves come off and we surgically remove their ability to do so. Every ship and gunboat should be destroyed and all the naval installations raised to the ground…

      Effectively destroy the Iranian Navy, or any Iranian vessel that is armed.

      It’s time to drop the hammer on these idiots and send them reeling.

      I’ll bet the F15I and F35I Squadrons are straining at the bit!

      • The Iranians don’t have much of a conventional navy. After the initial salvo it would be like the Red Sea situation times 1,000.

        • I’m afraid you just mallet 7 shades out of them then.

          If they don’t stop, you set about dismantling their military capability, from their C4 assets down until you collapse that vile regime from within along with its ability to manufacture and supply drones and missiles.

          Simultaneously, arm and equip the Iranian opposition and do to them what they have been doing to everyone else, i.e destabilise them from within.

          Much as the thought of more war in that area of the world is absolutely appalling, the Iranians were behind the October attacks and now directly attacking the Israelis, they won’t stop until they are stopped.

          Just how many more nails can the Iranian regime put in their coffin before the West’s patience finally snaps and they end up being buried ???

          • To quote John Bolton, ‘would you rather have a war with Iran now or wait until they have nuclear weapons?’.

          • I’m afraid that has to be factored in, or we will eventually end up with a nuclear exchange between Iran and Israel.

            If that happens, Iran might land one or two, Israel would probably use 10 and end them as a nation, with millions dead.

            It isn’t worth even thinking about….

            As Israel has the home advantage here of picking it’s Iranian targets at will, I hope they pick wisely.

            First off, any nuclear related sites

            Iran’s Airforce will be utterly unable to stop F35I’s striking targets at will, I would also kill C4 and air defence assets first then hit every missile and drone facility (or related) known.

            If Iran strike again, I would directly go after regime targets and individuals and carry on hitting their military until it’s totally degraded.

            You can guarantee Mossad and Israeli Military intelligence will have worked up quite the target list, with Mossad human intelligence in Iran doubling down on refining that list.

          • I agree but you have to find those assets first, we know Iran disguises its missile launchers as ordinary cargo trucks.
            The mini subs would be quite hard to find too.
            As much as I am in favour of diminishing Irans military capabilities it would not be a quick or easy task, we are probably looking at a desert storm size air campaign.

  8. It is a sad reality, but the truth is that the lives and fate of the world’s eight billion humans lie in the hands of a tiny number of lunatics-Putin, Netenyahu, Kim, Iran’s Khameini and others. Netenyahu is the key player here. He has to be made to broker a cease fire in the Gaza conflict now.The rest will follow. Virtually all on this forum backed Israel immediately after the October attacks. Even many Muslim communities were disturbed by Hamas’s brutality. Israel had the high ground and the backing of most of the world. A hard and precise response would have been appropriate but the way he has indiscriminately bludgeoned civilian populations and caused massive destruction has destroyed his credibility and the cause of Israel. My wife(who is Jewish) and I would always be on the side of Israel if the proverbial line was drawn in the sand, but Netenyahu is acting like a maniac and must be reined in! Brom’s post above poses the perfect analogy to bring a perspective-can you imagine if the British government bombed Catholic areas in NI in response to the actions of the IRA? Time for sane heads-this is not a video game. The world is close to the brink and that means the end of many of our lives and civilisation as we know it.

    • Hi Geoff, as ever an intelligent voice of reason.

      Unfortunately the October attacks were of such savage depravity that this response was unavoidable.

      The question of our time, how do you switch this off now???

      I fear the only long term solution is to remove Iran from the equation Geoff.

      Remove Iran and the terrorist groups would slowly decrease in their abilities and wither on the vine.

        • I think the only way you could bring Iran under control is via a two stage approach and a long term plan.

          First, instruct Iran in the UN to stop supporting terrorist groups and end manufacturing of attack drones and ballistic missiles, or face the long term consequences of failing to act.

          The point of this is to give them the opportunity change course. This would be linked to lifting sanctions and encouraging them to change their ways.

          In the background, you instruct Iran that the West will no longer put up with this sort of behaviour and will set about degrading their military capability and ultimately imploding their regime if they carry on.

          At this point we find out just how fanatical the regime is, would it like to stay in charge and curb its worst excesses, or stare down the barrel of a gun?

          If they elect not to listen……

          I would fund Iranian opposition groups and if necessary, train and arm them, using the Iranian favourite tactic of subversive insurrection against their own regime.

          Alongside a growing insurgency they would start to face domestically, I would remove the capability to build and supply ballistic missiles and drones by destroying every factory, warehouse and component supplier involved in their manufacture via cruise missile attacks and airstrikes.

          I would carry on with airstrikes to destroy any follow up targets involved in either ballistic missile or drone manufacturers that come to light subsequently.

          If they attack shipping in the straights of Hormuz, I would destroy their Navy, it’s bases and infrastructure and remove their ability to attack civilian shipping permanently.

          If Iran carries on attacking Israel or attacks it’s neighbours, I would create a coalition to set about degrading Iran’s military capability to as close to zero as possible, starting with their C4 abilities and Airforce, moving on down from there, including it’s foreign bases, until that ability no longer exists in any significant way.

          All deeply unpalatable I know, but if Iran is left unchecked, it will eventually trigger WW3, of that I have no doubt, as sure as Nazi Germany triggered WW2.

          • I agree. With Iran we’re dealing with bad actors who are not looking for peaceful co-existence. Any international agreement with them is always tactical and transitory. Their default strategy is always hostile. We should treat them as such and have a strategy based not merely on containing them but also of removing their teeth. If the West are a proven existential threat they will have to spend resources to defend against us. For example If they have a legitimate and proven fear of being bashed up heavily in an air attack we may see resources taken away from Drone and missile production. They need to understand that attacking others leads to the expensive things they love burning.

          • Agree with everything you say John. As with most of the world’s problems, the answers are simple but the implementation fights laziness, inertia, vested interests, criminality etc.. H.sapiens needs to stop breeding, copy what the top ten countries do, ditch what the bottom ten do, grasp the nettles!

          • Spot on mate. A lack of international will to stop Iran and gradually strangle that vile regime into submission or collapse will be our collective undoing.

    • “Netenyahu is acting like a maniac and must be reined in! “Spot on Geoff, enough is enough. What real military capability can Hammas still have?

      The fact of the thing is that Netenyahu was caught off guard by the October attacks, and he knows it. I cant see him securing another political term.

      • Hi Klonkie-nice to hear from you. I have ex Durbanite friends living in Israel and my pal LB has conflicted feelings-on the one hand, most of his daily shopping is at the stores of Arab Israelis with whom he has close and long standing relationships, but on the other hand he firmly believes in knocking the shit out of Hamas in Gaza and to hell with the consequences! It would appear that Netenyahu’s support is fast diminishing on the ground but who knows which way it will all end?
        Meanwhile back here in SA we are preparing for the Election and there’s lots of black humour around (no pun intended). Our City manager trying to justify, in a really cringeworthy interview as to why his salary has just been upped by 65% to about R 4.5 million!! Then Ramaphosa’s election poster with the slogan-Lets do more together!! We are guessing-Corruption? Theft? Nepotism? 😁

        • hi Geoff, good to hear from you. I’m heading To Cape Town on Friday for a visit – first time in 27 years ! I liked your comment re the slogan “-Lets do more together!!” 😉

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here