Full-scale conflict puts Israel at risk of air defence struggle

Israel ’s well-stocked air defences - seen here intercepting an attack from Gaza in October - are built and paid for largely with US military assistance. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPAon Saturday using an enviable combination of its own sophisticated air defences and the critical support of western powers and Arab partners.

Ukraine’s air defences late last year were intercepting almost all of Russia’s aerial assaults, which use weaponry similar to that deployed by Iran at the weekend. But those defences have since been depleted by a constant stream of enemy missiles, and last week Ukraine succeeded in stopping less than two-thirds of a massive salvo that destroyed Kyiv’s biggest power plant.

“Alliances work both ways,” said Ben Wallace, the former UK defence secretary. He recalled how Israel refused to help Ukraine when Russia first launched its all-out war against Kyiv and rejected Zelenskyy’s request for an Iron Dome air defence system. But it was also thanks to substantial help from a US-led coalition, and the fact that the Iranian salvo was telegraphed in advance, allowing ample time to prepare.

“Israel defended itself under ideal conditions last weekend when it faced a one-time punitive strike,” said Franz-Stefan Gady, an associate fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank in London. Wallace, who was UK defence secretary for four years until he stepped down last August, said many of the aerial attack capabilities that Tehran claimed to have were a “fantasy” and suffered from a big “say-do gap”.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi watches as a drone passes during the annual Army Day in a military base in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA That US commitment continues for now. Even at the peak of his frustration with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza, US president Joe Biden has pledged to maintain Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to Israel’s security.

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