Iran Attacks Israel with Shahed-136 Kamikaze Drones: Details of the Mass Airstrike

In Persian, his name means ‘martyr’ and their flights are only outward, never back. They are the drones Shahed-136los kamikaze drones with which Iranin the early hours of this Sunday, has attacked Israel en masse With ballistic and cruise missiles.

They are design and technology They are neither cutting-edge nor cutting-edge, and their destructive capacity—per unit—is not very considerable. But the Shahed-136 keep a secret, and they have been successfully used by Russia to bomb Ukraine: the construction price per aircraft is only 20.000 eurosa ridiculous price compared to what a missile is worth, which can cost hundreds of thousands of euros unit.

A Shahed-136 drone, displayed at the Museum of the Islamic Revolution in Qom, Iran. / Tasnim News Agency

The Shahed-136s are also neither too fast nor too difficult to shoot down. But their attacks are in swarmsomething new in the art of war, and seek to overwhelm the anti-aircraft systems of the enemy. And this is precisely what the Iranian attack this Sunday morning against Israel was like: with more than 200 drones flying at the same time against the Israeli target, hoping that some Shahed-136s will be shot down, but that, as a group, because strength is in numbers, the target will be hit.

In Ukrainefaced with less prepared anti-aircraft defenses, the Shahed-136 has had some success, especially with attacks from Russia contra civil infrastructure. But in this case it has not been like that. Israel, USA, United Kingdom y Jordan have assured having shot down 99% of the drones and missiles launched by Iran. Only a few projectiles have hit the Israeli Nevatim basewithout causing too much damage.

Iran, on the other hand, optimistically claims that its airstrike was exitand that the ‘Iron Dome’ Israeli could not stop its drone and missile offensive. TehranThus, he says there is finished his actions against Israel, which came in response to the Israeli bombing against the Iranian embassy in Damascus of last April 1. In that attack seven senior officials of the Iranian Revolutionary Guardthe elite political-military body of the Islamic Republic.

“We had the ability to make a large scale operationbut we have chosen another more restricted to attack only the resources that Israel used in its attack against our embassy in Syria“, said this Sunday the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Husein Salami.

National Production

After decades of international isolation and sanctionsIran, since 1979, has focused on the creation and production of a indigenous military arsenal. Thus, today, Iran is the country of Near East with the greater number of ballistic missilessome of which have been used during the early hours of this Sunday.

Iran displays several missiles during military maneuvers in the southwest of the country, in 2021 / Walla News

The Arms Control Associationa non-governmental organization based in Washingtonassures that Iranian ballistic designs are based on Russian and North Korean models. In fact, Iran has several cruise missiles Kh-55Russian-made, with nuclear capacity and which is one of the most powerful and fastest missiles in the world.

Iran, however, does not yet have the arma nuclearbut claims to have uranium enriched up to 60%. To develop an atomic bomb it is necessary to achieve a purity of 90%, something technically simple once levels above 60% have been reached.

According to the Arms Control Association, the Iranian arsenal contains missiles Shahab-1, with the capacity to attack a target at 300 kilometers; he Zolfagharwhich can destroy a target at 700 kilometers; Shahab-3with a range of between 800 and 1,000 kilometers; Mothers-1a missile under development with up to 2,000 kilometers of range, and the He sowedin development, with 1,500-2,500 kilometers.

Iran has not reported which models were used in the attack against Israel, but according to the expert Fabian Hinz, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies Berlin, Tehran has probably used in its action the Paveh 351, a missile capable of attacking a target more than 2,000 kilometers away. This model has already been used in the past by Houthi rebels in Yemen and for the Popular Mobilization Units (UMP) in Syria and Irak. Both groups are part of the ‘Axis of Resistance’the military umbrella of militias with which Iran supports itself militarily throughout the region.

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