Iran strikes Israel with ballistics: How deadly are these missiles?

With fears of an all-out war ratcheted up by a White House official predicting an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel, here’s a quick look into what kind of missile capability Tehran possesses in its military arsenal.

According to a 2022 report by the US Central Command, Iran has over 3,000 ballistic missiles, with a diverse range – from short and medium range, to liquid-fuel ballistic missiles primarily relying on designs copied from North Korean and Russian technology.

The Sajjil missiles, which run on solid-fuel technology, can carry a payload of around 700 kilograms and penetrate as deep as 2,500 kilometres away from Iranian territory. Tel Aviv is 2,000 kilometres from Tehran.

Another similar missile is called the Khaibar, which can travel 1,240 miles with 2,000 kilograms of payload.

The Shahab series are often used by Iran to shock its enemy. The Shahab-3 can go as far as approximately 900 kilometres. While they are usually used to strike fear in urban areas and exact concessions from the adversary, the casualties these projectiles can cause are lower than the Sajjil missiles.

The Sajjil and its varient Qiam missiles can be launched in a short span of time and moved from one place to another with the help of smaller vehicles.

In the past two decades, Iran has improved its skills on producing precision-guided missiles. For instance, the Fateh-110 family has been credited with having significant accuracy in targeting military installations, as evidenced by Iran's January 2020 attack on US forces in Iraq.

In January 2024, Iran also launched missile attacks on what it described as Israeli "espionage units" in northern Iraq’s Erbil region. A US official however later said that the attack wasn’t successful as claimed by the Iranian state, saying the missiles were “imprecise”.

In the ongoing Iranian missile attack, Tel Aviv has been on high alert. The US, as usual, has come to Israel’s assistance, helping the Israeli military in intercepting any projectiles directed its way by Iran.

In a similar attack launched by Iran in April, the US said most of those missiles were successfully neutralised.