The Americans appreciated the high level of Iranian missiles and drones launched at Israel

The Israelis have not yet encountered such weapons

Iran fired hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday night, including weapons that experts say are more advanced than anything Israel has faced so far in six months of fighting with Hamas and its allies in region.

Previously, Israel was subject to air attacks from Hamas and Islamic Jihad (in Russia, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group is included in the list of prohibited terrorist organizations. – “MK”), the missile arsenal of which includes short-range missiles (from 12 to 25 miles ) and somewhat inaccurate 122mm Grad family missiles, as well as Syrian-made M-302 missiles with a range of about 100 miles.

Hamas also has Iranian-made Fajr-5 missiles and a similar locally produced version of the Fajr-5, both with a range of about 50 miles.

The weapons that Iran used on Sunday night can spread much further, and some of them much faster, writes The New York Times. However, Israel has said that almost all of the missiles and drones fired by Iran have been intercepted, many of them with the help of the US military.

According to Israeli military officials, 185 unmanned aerial vehicles, 36 cruise missiles and 110 surface-to-surface missiles were fired at Israel in Saturday’s attack. Most of the launches came from Iran, although officials said a small portion came from Iraq and Yemen.

Fabian Hinz, an expert on Iran’s military at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Berlin, said in a post on X that Iran is likely to use the Paveh 351 cruise missile developed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The missile has a range of more than 1,200 miles, enough to reach Israel from Iran.

According to his report, various versions of this missile were also provided to the Houthis in Yemen and the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, The New York Times notes.

And Jeffrey Lewis, a member of the US State Department’s International Security Advisory Board, said in a post on Platform X that Iran uses ground-launched cruise missiles that can carry about a ton of explosives.

The expert also noted that most of Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal has sufficient range to reach Israel. And although Iranian drones carry a much smaller payload than missiles, they have the advantage of being able to hover and displace targets.

In recent decades, Iran has primarily focused on deterrence, long-range missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and air defense systems, The New York Times emphasizes. Iran has one of the largest arsenals of ballistic missiles and drones in the Middle East and is becoming a major arms exporter worldwide, according to weapons experts.

Last year, after the Hamas attack in October, Israel asked the United States for more precision-guided munitions for its warplanes and more interceptor missiles for its Iron Dome missile defense system. Israel’s weapons arsenal includes Vietnam War-era missiles, some of which have failure rates as high as 15 percent.