Iran has launched hundreds of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles. Iran says with this attack, it considers the matter concluded, and any Israeli response will be met with severe retaliation. Iran also tells the US to stay away and that if any regional nation is used to launch the Israeli response, they will be targeted, too.
Israel claims to have intercepted 99% of Iranian response, and the IDF says citizens no longer need to stay near shelters, suggesting the Iranian attack is over. They were helped by UK and US fighter jets in other countries. Israel says it will give “an unprecedented response”. Israel has told the US what their response will consist of.
UN Security Council to meet at 4 PM Eastern Time, Sunday. As of now, it seems all drones and missiles have been intercepted/hit their targets. The impact on Israel has been extremely minor, with minimal casualties and zero fatalities. A military target seems to have been hit. Now we wait for Israel's response.
Hopefully, that too is similarly limited and the situation calms down.
OG Post:
Per randos on Twitter, drones will reach in a few hours. It's not missiles or anything more substantial...yet (and hopefully never).
Edit - Hopefully, this is the only response. I can't stand the people cheering for this or wanting further escalation. Millions will die. I have no idea what Israel will do in retaliation for this retaliation. I don't even have any hopes they'll not respond. I just don't know.
Flares seem far too bulky for a missile or drone to carry when that could be more fuel or payload.
Interceptor missiles have to calculate where their target will be and vector towards that point in the future. Its also not chasing the missile like an AA missile chases a plane. Its trying to meet the missile head on, which is far more difficult. I suspect the patriots can sense and recalculate course changes quickly but idk how quickly it can actually maneuver intercept an incoming target if that target is waiting to the last minute to dodge.
good point about the weight, afaik modern control systems are pretty decent at ignoring flares anyway. it seems to me that a smaller interceptor rocket would be more maneuverable than the drones, though not sure about the latency between sensing and actuation.