'This Is What A 99% Interception Rate Looks Like': Israel Shares Video On How It Took Down Iranian Drones

Iran carried out strikes against Israel for the first time ever on Saturday night forcing Israel to sound air raid alerts and urging residents to seek shelter as explosions were heard.

To the uninitiated, a photo of the Israeli air defence systems intercepting the Iranian missile barrage might look like a picture of fireworks going off as the interceptions lit up the night sky in several places across the country.

It was not just Iran though, some of its allies had also joined the attack, according to a report by UK broadcaster BBC. Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen fired the projectiles while Israel, the US, the UK and France as well as Jordan intercepted them.

The IDF spokesman said the launches numbered more than 300 but 99% of them were intercepted. Calling the outcome “a very significant strategic success,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Iran fired 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles. Of those, several ballistic missiles reached Israeli territory, causing minor damage to an air base.

Rescuers said a 7-year-old girl in a Bedouin Arab town was seriously wounded in southern Israel, apparently in a missile strike, though they said police were still investigating the circumstances of her injuries.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) then posted a video on social media site X captioned: “This is what a 99% interception rate looks like. Operational footage from the Aerial Defense System protecting the Israeli airspace”.

The IDF posted another video which showed the Israeli military’s defence system C-Dome being used for the second time in a week to take down an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which flew in from the southeast. The IDF did not specify who launched the attack.

David Atherton, a journalist with The European Conservative said Israel downed 185 Kamikaze drones, 103 out of 110 ballistic missiles, 36 out 36 cruise missiles. “Only 7 ballistic missile impacts were recorded on Israeli territory,” Atherton said in a post on X.

Hagari said the vast majority of the intercepts came outside Israel’s borders, including 10 cruise missiles that were intercepted by warplanes. Israel’s military said its Arrow system, which shoots down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, handled most interceptions and noted that “strategic partners” were involved.

Cost of Interception

Yehoshua Kalisky, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank in Tel Aviv told the Wall Street Journal that cost of Israel’s interception of Iran’s missile and drone barrage was more than $550 million. He calculated the cost of intercepting half of the Iranian missiles and drones, how much expenses were incurred while using the David’s Sling air-defence system and how much it cost to keep 100 Israeli warplanes in the air for six hours, including fuel and weapons.

He said these were ‘enormous costs’ but believes that it may not have a long-term impact on the Israeli economy.