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19 October 2024

What Iran is facing: Israeli strike power combines precision with mass

Bill Sweetman

On October 1, before Iran launched more than 180 missiles against Israel, an X user called @MossadIL posted a video of the Damavand power station. It’s a 2.9 GW combined-cycle natural-gas plant that is the largest of its type in the region and the main source of power to Tehran.

The implication was unsaid but unmistakable: ‘Nice power plant. Shame if anything happened to it.’

Even online trolling can sometimes have a germ of reality to it. On October 9, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said, ‘Our strike will be lethal, precise and above all, surprising. They won’t understand what happened and how. They will see the results.’

It’s the ability to deliver large numbers of fire-and-forget, accurate, small but lethal weapons that gives Israel’s leaders the ability to hold at risk a very large range of Iranian targets with controlled effects. They could be energy or transport infrastructure, military targets, such as bases and missile plants, or many other facilities. This includes a capability, as Gallant suggests, to achieve surprise.


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