Israel’s effective use of air-launched ballistic missiles in its air strikes against Iran is expected to increase interest elsewhere in acquiring the weapon, which most major powers have eschewed in favor of cruise missiles and glide bombs.
The Israel Defense Forces said its October 26 attack destroyed Iranian missile factories and air defenses in three strikes. The researchers said that based on satellite imagery, the targets included buildings that were once used in Iran’s nuclear program.
Justin Bronk, an airpower and technology expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said Tehran defends such targets with a “huge variety” of anti-aircraft systems.
Cruise missiles are easier targets for dense, integrated air defenses than ballistic missiles. But ballistic missiles are often fired from known launch points, and most cannot change course during flight.
Israel Aerospace Industries High-speed, highly accurate air-launched ballistic missiles like the Rampage address the problems faced by ground-based ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles — weapons that have long ranges, experts say. They use small wings to fly and maintain altitude.
“The main advantage of ALBM over ALCM is the speed of penetrating security,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California. “It seems that the downside – accuracy – has been largely resolved.”
Ground-launched ballistic missiles – which Iran used to attack Israel twice this year, and which both Ukraine and Russia have used since Russia invaded in 2022 – are in the arsenals of many countries. are common. So, too, are cruise missiles.
Because ALBMs are carried by aircraft, their launch points are flexible, aiding strike planners.
“The advantage is that, being air-launched, they can come from any direction, which complicates the task of defending against them,” said David Schwartz, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and one of the architects of Israel’s missile defense. One of them, Uzi Rubin, said. ,
The weapons are not impervious to air defense. Lockheed Martin Patriot PAC-3 missiles have repeatedly intercepted Russia’s Khinzhal in Ukraine.
Several countries, including the United States and Britain, used ALBMs during the Cold War. Now only Israel, Russia and China are known to possess the weapon.
The US tested a hypersonic ALBM, the Lockheed Martin AGM-183, but it did not receive any funding for the 2025 fiscal year. Because it has a large arsenal of cruise missiles and other types of long-range strike weapons, Washington has otherwise shown little interest in the ALBM.
A US Air Force official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that ALBMs are not used in Air Force operations.
Raytheon’s SM-6, an air-defense missile repurposed for air-to-air and surface-to-surface missions, could be used to attack air-launched anti-aircraft missiles, a senior US defense technology analyst said. Also tested as a ship weapon. Who refused to reveal his identity because the matter was sensitive.
The analyst said that in tests the missile was capable of attacking a small target on land that represents a destroyer’s center of mass. Publicly, the SM-6 is not for air-to-ground attack.
A defense industry executive, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said that because ALBMs are essentially a combination of guidance, warheads and rocket motors, many countries that have precision weapons already pursue them. Has the ability to do.
The executive said, “It’s a clever way of taking a common set of technologies and components and turning it into a very interesting new weapon that gives them far greater capabilities and therefore options at a reasonable price.”
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