ROME, March 23. /TASS/. Israel’s air defenses are showing signs of exhaustion and are no longer effective against massive attacks from Iran, according to Gianluca Di Feo, a military observer for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has deployed its most modern and powerful weapons, and their cluster munitions continue to breach Israel's air defense system. The Jewish state is using Arrow 3 systems less and less, the publication notes. They are the only ones capable of ensuring defense against a 'cluster rain' of munitions, but stockpiles of these systems are extremely limited. Eighty missiles were used to repel the first wave of Iran’s retaliatory strike, with another 50 or so used during the conflict last June, Di Feo writes. And production is slow – it will take three years to replenish them, the author indicates.

Amid the Arrow 3 shortage, the Israeli military is increasingly using the David's Sling air defense system. However, this system destroys incoming projectiles at the final stage of their trajectory, which is often too late to prevent the release of deadly cluster munitions, the observer noted. Fears of being left without missile defense are strong within the Pentagon, and they are affecting the Persian Gulf countries. The US has deployed its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense batteries and Standard SM-3 interceptors mounted on ships, as well as several Patriot PAC-3 batteries. In the first thirty-six hours alone, they fired a huge number: 80 THAAD missiles were used, and another 150 were expended in June, a third of the total available. Fewer than 40 are produced annually, and they won’t be replaced until 2030, the publication says.

The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.