This was an order of magnitude greater than, for instance, the 27 ballistic missiles that they fired at Al-Assad in response to the targeted killing of Sulemani a couple years ago.

The specter of complex and integrated attack makes it complicated by having to look in every

direction, for every trajectory, almost all at once.

We are in a new missile age, new era of missile warfare.

These are weapons of choice.

Hey, welcome back to the Modern War Institute podcast.

I'm John Amble, editorial director at MWI, and I'm joined on this episode by Tom Carrico.

Like many of us, he was watching closely just days ago when Iran launched more than a hundred ballistic missiles, dozens of cruise missiles, and nearly 200 drones in a large-scale attack against Israel.

But unlike the rest of us, he watched it through an expert lens because he is the director

of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for International and Strategic Studies.

He joins me on this episode to provide insights into the practical mechanics of defending

against such a large number of incoming missiles and drones.

He describes some of the characteristics of the specific air defense systems employed

in the operation, and he discusses the challenges of command and control, of coordination and

deconfliction and others that modern air defenses have to be able to overcome.

Finally, he shares some of the lessons that we can derive from the successful

operation and how they might inform, for example, the way the U.S. military conceptualizes and

implements air defense across a variety of operational environments. Before we get to the discussion,

as always, a few quick notes. First, if you're not yet subscribed to the MWI podcast,

you can find it on your favorite podcast app so you don't miss an episode. And second, as always, what you hear in this

episode are the views of the participants and don't represent those of West Point, the Army,

or any other agency of the U.S. government. All right, here's my conversation with Tom Caracom.

...