On Sunday morning, a Houthi missile evaded Israel's advanced air defense systems and was shot down only when it was in Israeli airspace, raising questions about potential flaws in existing security systems, reported in. " ;Jerusalem Post“.
The Houthis do not have their own ballistic missile manufacturing industry. Their entire arsenal comes from Iran. What is known in Yemen as the "Tufan" is essentially the Iranian "Gadir" missile, which is an upgrade of the "Shahab-3". For 25 years, Israel's Arrow air defense system has been developed and upgraded to intercept this weapon.
This missile has a range of about 2,000 km, enough to cover the distance from Yemen to Israel. It is transported from the storage site by truck to the launch site, where it is brought into readiness. Its missile's target is preset and it cannot change its course or correct it in flight. Unlike the "Shahab", preparation for its launch, mainly fueling the first stage, takes only about 30 minutes instead of several hours.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the pro-Iranian Yemeni Houthis, who control northern Yemen, "will pay a heavy price" after their rocket hit central Israel for the first time, Reuters reported.
„Anyone who needs to be reminded is invited to visit the port of Hodeidah,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israel's retaliatory airstrike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone strike in Tel Aviv.
Since the war in Gaza began with an attack by "Hamas” against Israel last October, the Houthis have repeatedly fired rockets and drones at Israel, which they say is an expression of their solidarity with the Palestinians.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarrea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that traveled 2,040 km in just 11 and a half minutes. And he added that Israel should expect more such rocket strikes as the first anniversary of the start of the Gaza war approaches.
And the deputy head of the media service of the Houthis, Nasruddin Amer, said in a publication in “X“ on Sunday that the missile reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept it”, describing the incident as “the beginning”.
Detection Network
The missile is launched vertically and follows a ballistic trajectory, meaning it travels in an arc. It flies through the atmosphere with its engine still working to propel it forward. During flight, the first stage detaches and the second stage re-enters the atmosphere after expending its fuel, continuing to accelerate due to gravity.
From North Yemen, the rocket reaches central Israel in just 12-15 minutes. Its weight before launch is estimated at 15-17 tons, but the warhead itself weighs about 650 kg, contains a significant explosive charge, which, combined with the speed of impact, can cause serious damage to civilian and also weakly protected military structures.
Detection of such a missile has stages that did not seem to work on Sunday. When the missile is being prepared for launch, it is in an open area visible to Israeli and US intelligence satellites, which are supposed to monitor potential launch sites, the Jerusalem Post noted.
When the missile is launched, the intense heat generated by its engine should be detected by the US missile warning satellite network and the information should be relayed to the Israeli military.
Several radar systems are supposed to detect and track the missile when it is on its trajectory toward Israel.
Among them are the US and Israeli fleet radars in the Red Sea, the long-range X-band radar manufactured by Raytheon. and located in the Negev desert, operated by American troops, and finally - the radar of the "Arrow“ system.
But it is still unclear whether the missile was detected in time and why it was not intercepted by the Arrow system as planned.
"Hamas" applauded
The Gaza-based Palestinian group "Hamas" praised the Houthis for their rocket attack and said that Israel "will not enjoy security" unless it ends its war in Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.
The group said in a statement that it considered the rocket attack a "natural response to the aggression of the Zionist entity against our Palestinian people.
"We affirm that the Zionist enemy will not enjoy security unless it ends its brutal aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip,” the group said in a statement.
For now, it remains unclear what led to the destruction of the missile, notes the "Guardian". The Israeli military said that “the initial investigation shows that the missile most likely disintegrated in mid-air [after] several interception attempts”, adding that "the entire incident is under investigation”.
On Sunday, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi warned of new attacks on Israel. "The operation our forces conducted today with an advanced Yemeni missile is part of the fifth stage of escalation. What's to come will be bigger," he said in a speech.
According to Israeli media reports, the rocket was discovered at a very late stage. "The warhead of this missile is separated from the body, and with the help of wings and navigation systems protected from jamming, it moves in a zigzag fashion towards the target, which can make it very difficult for interception systems,”, according to information on the newspaper's website "Yediot Ahronoth".
The incident will raise concerns across Israel about the ability of the country's anti-ballistic missile systems to protect it from attacks that could come simultaneously from Gaza, Iran, Lebanon and Yemen, notes the "Guardian".
The newspaper recalls that in June, a senior official from the Biden administration told CNN that there was a risk that Israel's air defenses would be overwhelmed by multiple attacks.