By Peter Sinkamba
ISRAEL SPENT US$1 BILLION TO SHOOT DOWN IRANIAN DRONES COSTING US$1 MILLION!
Israel’s interception of hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones on Sunday has cost Tel Aviv around $1.35 billion (up to 5 billion shekels), Israeli media reported.
Meanwhile, the Shahed 101 or delta winged Shahed 131 that Iran used each cost about $20,000 (£15,700) or slightly more. Implicitly, Iran spent not more than $1 million to build the drones shot down at the cast of US$1 billion. Iran has millions of such drones. If a swam of 10,000 drones is deployed, Israel lacks capacity to intercept the drones.
On Sunday, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Brig. Gen. Ram Aminach, the former financial advisor to the Israeli chief of staff, is wuoted as saying that “the cost of defence last night was estimated at between 4-5 billion shekels ($1.08-1.35 billion).”
The estimate–by Yehoshua Kalisky, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank in Tel Aviv–takes into account expenses associated with intercepting half of the Iranian missiles and drones, including the use of the David’s Sling air-defense system, and also takes into account the cost of keeping 100 Israeli warplanes in the air for six hours, including fuel and weapons.
Iran fired scores of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles on Israel in an unprecedented attack against its archfoe.
Among the drones used in the April 13 assault, according to Iranian state-run media, were the Iranian-made Shahed-136 and Shahed-131s.
Are The Drones Effective?
The Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 “kamikaze” drones are cheap but effective, according to experts. Built with off-the-shelf components, the drones have attracted derisive monikers such as “lawnmowers” and “mopeds” due to the sound of their engines in flight.
Russia has used the Shahed drone to attack Ukraine, such as the strike in Kyiv in November 2023.
But the low-flying drones, which are maneuvered to crash into their target, have proven themselves capable of hitting their mark both in terms of military effectiveness and cost.
“It is capable of extracting or delivering attrition and damage when launched,” said Samuel Bendett of the Virginia-based Center for Naval Analyses.
John Krzyzaniak, a research associate at the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, said Iranian drones like the Shahed-136s can “wreak havoc” if fired in large numbers.
Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted the Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari as saying that about 350 missiles and drones were launched from Iran at Israel, most of which were intercepted.
He confirmed that minor damage had occurred at the Nevatim air base in Beersheba while “99 percent of the threats against Israel were intercepted.”
“25 out of 30 cruise missiles were intercepted, and of the more than 120 ballistic missiles, only a few of them penetrated Israeli territory and landed at the Nevatim air base,” he added.