GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 374

Send In The Drones

Drone Explanation

Questions flew all around after a Hezbollah drone got through Israeli defenses and killed 4 and wounded 67 people over the weekend. Probe results were released and we read what they told us from a report from The Times Of Israel:

The Hezbollah drone that struck an IDF training base Sunday evening and killed four soldiers fell off of radars, then reappeared briefly before hitting its target, according to the Israeli Air Force’s initial investigation into the attack.

The drones were part of a three-fold offensive:

According to details of the IAF investigation shared with The Times of Israel, the Hezbollah drone was part of a multi-pronged aerial attack. The Lebanese terror group fired short-range rockets at the north, three precision rockets toward Haifa, and launched three drones at Israel last night.

One of the drones was shot down by the navy, another by the Iron Dome.

It was the third one that is under review:

The third was pursued by Israeli jets and helicopters, which fired at it twice, according to the IAF investigation. Electronic warfare measures also failed to force the UAV to lose its bearings. It dropped off radars 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Acre, and the IAF assumed that it had crashed.

How the drone dropped off their radar is still a mystery and the logic of giving up on it are some of the concerns:

The IAF investigation into the incident found that the drone appeared back on radars for another minute in the half-hour between its dropping off of screens and the strike, but forces did not identify it as a drone at the time, and therefore did not trigger warning alarms. There are hundreds of objects flying in Israeli airspace just above buildings at any given time, including birds, adding to the challenge of identifying a drone that appears in an unexpected location.

In addition, police told the IAF of reports of a suspicious aircraft near Yokne’am, which could have been the drone.

It appears that Hezbollah has found a weakness in the warning and detection system and the Israel Air Force is taking measures to fix it:

Over the course of the war, some 1,200 drones have been fired at Israel, and 221 have gotten through Israel’s defenses.

In light of the incident, the air force is expanding the areas of warning, meaning there will be more sirens and more false alarms. It will also assume a drone is still flying when it disappears, and will determine that it has crashed only when evidence is found.

Also, the IAF is going to focus on taking out the drone abilities of the terrorists from the start:

In the wake of the deadly strike, the IAF has also set a goal of completely eliminating Hezbollah’s Unit 127, responsible for its UAV production, maintenance and operation, The Times of Israel has learned. The effort to kill every member of the unit will now take priority, in terms of intelligence collection and airstrikes.

US Providing Defense Help

We learn from an article from The Times Of Israel that the US is sending Israel an advanced missile defense system to help protect them from missile attacks:

The Pentagon on Sunday confirmed that Washington will send an advanced air defense battery to Israel to protect the country in case of an Iranian reaction to an expected Israeli reprisal attack, along with American soldiers to operate it, as Tehran appeared to threaten the US troops to be stationed in the region. A US defense official said around 100 US troops would be deployed to operate the system.

For those who want to know, THAAD stands for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. Going back to the report, we are informed that the deployment came from the top and why:

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin authorized the deployment of the THAAD battery at the direction of President Joe Biden.

Ryder said the system will help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s missile attacks on Israel in April and October.

The reason was confirmed by the Pentagon:

The Pentagon on Sunday confirmed that Washington will send an advanced air defense battery to Israel to protect the country in case of an Iranian reaction to an expected Israeli reprisal attack, along with American soldiers to operate it, as Tehran appeared to threaten the US troops to be stationed in the region. A US defense official said around 100 US troops would be deployed to operate the system.

Ryder made a point to reinforce the US commitment to Israel:

“This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran,” Ryder said.

We now read more on what THAAD can do:

The THAAD is considered a complimentary system to the Patriot system but can defend a wider area, capable of hitting targets at ranges of 150-200 kilometers (93-124 miles).

Each battery consists of six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors, radio and radar equipment, and requires 95 soldiers to operate.

The US is also sending the soldiers to operate them.

Iran, for its part isn’t happy about the deployment of the system to Israel:

In a social media post published as reports of the planned THAAD deployment circulated, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi charged that the US “has been delivering record amounts of arms to Israel.”

“It is now also putting lives of its troops at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel,” he wrote.

Trying to sound like they are the reasonable one he added this:

“While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” Araghchi added, less than two weeks after Iran lobbed some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1.

The US could be seen as walking a narrow line because troops are also being deployed which means American soldiers will be in Israel helping to fight in the war whether they see it that way or not. Politics aside we need to pray for any help Israel gets as it fights the various threats against her. Of course we as believers can also pray for the help only God can provide.