Replies

Israel has Patriot missiles for shooting down incoming missiles. According to a reporter on FOX in Israel, Patriot missiles were not designed to handle the new class of longer range missiles now being fired by Hezbollah. Based on this and if it's true (I never know when the media is accurate), I doubt Israel could protect itself from long range missiles from Iran. Otherwise, incoming missiles would be shot down now.

Israel has Arrow, which is designed (partly with US SDI technology) to be able to handle IRBMs.

My guess is that the US has Aegis ships in both the Eastern Med and Persian Gulf with Standard 3 capability ... just like we do sitting off North Korea. I would say that the chances of a nuke-tipped IRBM launched from Iran actually hitting Israel (as opposed to being shot down or hitting, say, Jordan, or Saudi Arabia, or nosediving into the PG or overshooting into the Med) are pretty slim. Worthy of respect (a 10% chance is still respectable, of course) ... but slim.

My guess is that the US has Aegis ships in both the Eastern Med and Persian Gulf with Standard 3 capability

On another thread, it was reported that 11 US Navy ships had moved into the eastern Med. To me, that means we have shifted the carrier battle group that is always in the Med to the east. At least one of those ships will be an Aegis cruiser. An Aegis equipped destroyer may also be in the group.

I don't think very many ships have been upgraded to the Standard 3, but the Standard 2 has been proven effective against incoming ballistic missiles, just not at the altitude of the Standard 3.