How is the Islamic Republic’s Attack on Israel Related to China’s Conflict with the US?

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Top US Officials look at the recent aerial attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran on Israel as a testing ground for the capabilities of the US’s Aegis air defense system in preparation for a possible future escalation in the Indo-Pacific region.

Pentagon officials state that any future threats (especially from China) will require more and cheaper interceptors, laser systems, and weapons that can launch an attack on enemy launchers.

Pentagon tech chief Heidi Shyu and other officials spoke at the NDIA Missile Defense Conference last week, stating that the defense capabilities of Aegis in Israel and Patriot in Ukraine being tested is a cause for celebration. Shyu also warned that the US cannot be complacent and should constantly be developing new defense and offense weapons to stay safe.

Shyu, along with Assistant Secretary of Defense John Plumb said there are many lessons for the US military to be learned from the Russia-Ukraine war and Iran’s attack on Israel, the most important being that many drones and missiles can be launched at once by the enemy, which can really test the defense capabilities of the subject of such attacks. “We have to have defense at scale, because the adversary can develop cheap systems at scale and then send them simultaneously,” said Plumb.

The mass drone attacks can not only severely impact the capabilities of defense systems, but also drive up the funds needed for countermeasures. Plumb added that Ukraine forces managed to shoot down cruise missiles with machine guns assisted by sensors and stated that the US should rethink its strategy and save its expensive pieces of missile defense for the last layer.

According to Breaking Defense, Shyu said that the three wings of the US Armed Forces are “developing 300-kilowatt lasers with far greater range than current counter-drone weapons.” During the conference, she also emphasized the need for a comprehensive net of detection, AI-aided drone and missile recognition, followed by an additional layer of many defense systems to “actually carry out the job.”

This information was provided by Interesting Engineering.