After the assassination of Iranian general Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the commander of the Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, at the beginning of the month, the Iranians issued a series of threats against Israel, including a tweet from Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, which read: "With the help of God, we will make the Zionists repent of their crime of aggression against the consulate the Iranian in Damascus."
Despite the Iranian capabilities in the field of rockets, missiles, and drones, and their use of foreign proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Shi'ite militias in Iraq and Syria, the level of damage Israel can cause to Iran and its allies though its long-range attack capabilities is very high.
What are Israel's alleged long-range attack capabilities?
According to foreign reports, the Israeli missile program began in the 1960s in collaboration with France, when France developed, tested, and sold to Israel the Jericho missile, which became operational in the 1970s. This missile has a range of 500 km., meaning it could hit all Arab capital cities around Israel, and is capable of carrying nuclear and chemical weapons.
In the mid-1970s, Israel reportedly developed the Jericho 2 missile together with South Africa from scratch. It's a two-stage ballistic missile with a range of about 1500 km. Israel carried out several tests with it in the Mediterranean Sea, with some of them reaching Crete and some falling near an American ship north of Benghazi in Libya. The cooperation with South Africa, it was alleged by US, also took the form of a joint nuclear test conducted on an island south of South Africa in 1979.
According to foreign reports, Israel in the late 1990s began to develop a three-stage intercontinental missile with a range of up to 15,500 km, with the ability to carry several nuclear and thermonuclear warheads with a power between 800 kilotons to 12 megatons, 650 times the power of the atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima.
Foreign reports say the missile became operational in 2008. According to a secret report given to the US Congress, the missile gives Israel the possibility of causing nuclear damage to all the countries of the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, almost all of North America, and large parts of South America and North Oceania. Israel is also reportedly developing the next generation of the Jericho, the Jericho 4, a three-stage missile, whose capabilities will include the possibility of carrying fragmentation warheads.
According to foreign reports, Israel keeps the Jericho missiles at an Air Force base near Beit Shemesh. In addition to Israel's nuclear missile carrying capabilities, according to foreign publications, Israel has equipped its Dolphin series of submarines with a cruise missile called Popeye Turbo SLCM, which can reach a range of 1,500 km. and carry a nuclear warhead.
According to US intelligence sources, Israel conducted a test in 2000 with this missile in the Indian Ocean. The purpose of the missile is to deliver a possible second strike, in case a country decides to attack Israel with a nuclear strike. According to foreign publications, each Dolphin submarine has four Popeye Turbo SLCM cruise missiles.
In addition, according to foreign reports, Israel is developing new missiles for Dolphin submarines that include a vertical launch system. The missiles that will be on the new submarine are ballistic missiles that are launched from the submarine at the same time as the cruise missiles. This would be a serious leap forward for Israeli capabilities in the field of missiles, and it seems that this is a new missile with a very long range, perhaps a scaled-down version of the Jericho 3 missile for launching submarines. According to the reports, the Dragon submarine has the ability to launch 4-6 such missiles.
Iran knows Israel has the following cruise and ballistic missiles:DelilahEXTRAGabrielHarpoonJericho 1Jericho 2Jericho 3LORAPopeyeUnlike Israel, Iran has a big issue, they can’t intercept ballistic Missiles. Don’t test Israel. pic.twitter.com/gXObjrKden
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) April 5, 2024
However, missiles are not the only long-range attack capability that Israel has. Israel also possesses long-range attack capability from aircraft as early as the early 1990s, when the Phantom planes arrived in Israel. According to documents approved for publication by the IDF archives, the IDF built attack capabilities in Libya and Yemen by double refueling between Phantom planes.
The fighter jets in Israel's hands, the F15, F16, and F35, can reach a range of 1,500-2,000 km. round trip without refueling. Israel has Boeing 707 type refueling planes, which make it possible to extend the attack range of the planes and cover the entire area of Iran. Israel also bought new Boeing KC-46 refueling planes, which are scheduled to enter service in 2025. Replacing the old Boeing 707s, they will significantly upgrade Israel's long-range bombing capabilities.
Additionally, Israel possesses long-range bunker-busting bombs that can hit some of Iran's nuclear facilities. However, Israel's attack capability is not limited to the nuclear facilities: Israel can damage the institutions and symbols of government in Tehran, damage the fuel terminal on Kharg Island, and paralyze Iran's oil export capacity via an attack on the Bandar Abbas port. These injuries will cause the collapse of the Iranian economy and disrupt the ability to live in Iran.
Israel has anti-missile defense capabilities, and a complete series of air-defense missiles, including the Iron Dome, David's Slingshot, Arrow 2, and Arrow 3, which allow Israel to neutralize a large part of the missile, drone, and rocket attack capabilities of Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen, as has been proven in six months.
Although not all the missiles will be stopped by the aforementioned systems, their damage will be less than any of the threats we hear every day in the media, and the damage Israel will cause to those countries is tens of times greater than their ability to harm Israel.
Israel has the ability to hit any target in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, or Yemen, through thousands of sorties of bombs from fighter jets. This capability could do unprecedented damage to these countries, including damage to fuel terminals, bridges, vital infrastructure, and symbols of government such as the presidential palace in Damascus. It is important that those who threaten Israel recognize and understand Israel's attack and defense capabilities against missiles so that they understand what they are dealing with and the consequences of their actions.