Strike was meant to show Iran that Israel could paralyze its defenses, Western officials say.
An Israeli weapon deployed in a retaliatory strike against Iran on Friday damaged a defense system responsible for detecting and destroying aerial threats near Natanz, a central Iranian city critical to the country's secret nuclear weapons program, according to two Western officials and two Iranian officials.
The strike, the Western officials said, was calculated to deliver a message to Iran that Israel could bypass Iran's defense systems undetected and paralyze them, using a fraction of the fire power Iran deployed last week when it launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel. That attack, intercepted by Israel and its allies, caused minimal damage.
The two Iranian officials said the weapon had struck an S-300 antiaircraft system at a military base in the nearby province of Isfahan. The officials' account is supported by satellite imagery analyzed by The New York Times, which showed damage to the radar of an S-300 system at the Eighth Shekari Air Base in Isfahan.
It was unclear what sort of weapon struck the Iranian air defense system. Three Western and two Iranian officials confirmed on Friday that Israel had deployed aerial drones and at least one missile fired from a warplane. Previously, Iranian officials said the attack on the military base had been conducted by small drones, most likely launched from inside Iranian territory.
A missile, two Western officials said, was fired from a warplane far from Israeli or Iranian airspace and included technology that enabled it to evade Iran's radar defenses. Neither the missile nor the aircraft that fired it entered Jordanian airspace, the Western officials said, a gesture meant to keep the kingdom out of the conflict after it helped shoot down Iranian weapons last week.
The two Iranian officials said that Iran's military had not detected anything entering Iran's airspace on Friday, including drones, missiles and aircraft. Iran's state news agency, IRNA, reported that no missile attacks had occurred and that Iran's air defense system had not been activated.
Israel, the two Western officials said, had scrapped an earlier plan to fire back on Iran with a large-scale attack. That plan, they said, was replaced with a strike intended to send a quiet but decisive message with the aim of ending the cycle of reprisal.
Israel's use of drones launched from inside Iran and a missile that it could not detect, the Western officials said, was intended to give Iran a taste of what a larger-scale attack might look like. The attack, they said, was calibrated to make Iran think twice before launching a direct attack on Israel in the future.
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The Israeli attack on an Iranian air base in Isfahan hit a crucial part of an air defense system, a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery found.
Images showed that the precision attack at the Eighth Shekari Air Base damaged or destroyed the "flap-lid" radar, which is used in S-300 air defense systems to track incoming targets.
The Times used several satellite images in its analysis; the location of the damaged area was first pointed out on the social media platform X by Aurora Intel, and the findings have also been confirmed by a former U.S. government imagery analyst, Chris Biggers.
The radar is typically surrounded by several vehicles, including four trucks carrying missiles. Before the strike, the missiles were seen positioned next to the radar. After the strike, they had been moved and did not appear visibly damaged. It was not clear why the missiles had been moved. However, the fact that they appear undamaged indicated that the attack had a very precise target, according to Mr. Biggers.
Other areas of the air base and adjacent airport also appeared to be undamaged. The precision of the strike, deep within Iran and with several sensitive sites close by, suggested Israel chose the specific and narrow target, the air defense system.
According to the Missile Defense Project of the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, Iran has acquired Russian-made S-300 air defense systems to deter Israeli and other airstrikes.

BIDEN/HARRIS 2024!!!!!

Let's go lefties!!!!!!!

This is what you support.

You pillow biting, anti-American losers.....can flat out be proud.

But…but…but…but…

But…

And just to be fair, I included the boat parade that #Nappy rides in. #Nappy didn't make it quite far enough to reach his Walgreen destination for his May jab!

BREAKING: Biden boat parade spotted off the coast of Florida. Well on his way to 100 million votes!

⭐   TRUMP  2024   ⭐ pic.twitter.com/vbMxBfT5DK

— John kobos (@kobe_man59) May 5, 2024