Lebanese militants of the Hezbollah group hit the Israeli Iron Dome air defense system with an Iranian missile system.

Footage of the attack was published online.

The video shows the final segment of the flight of an Iranian Almas anti-tank missile hitting the target.

The Israeli Iron Dome launcher was deployed at the IDF military base near the village of Ramot Naftali, located in the north of the country.

It appears Hezbollah did hit the Iron Dome launcher with a guided missile. This is the first time I’ve observed an Iron Dome launcher being hit. Separately, Palestinian terrorist groups have been trying to do this for years, but I’ve never seen evidence they were successful. https://t.co/6KB518OqJ4 pic.twitter.com/j6LZdJXK4W

— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) June 5, 2024

The distance from the position of the launcher to the border with Libya, where the missile could have been launched, is approximately 4 kilometers.

The launcher of the anti-aircraft system was disguised and partially protected from possible horizontal strikes by concrete panels, which, however, did not help against an attack in the upper hemisphere.

It is possible that the launcher’s layout was damaged in the depicted frames, as evidenced by a number of discrepancies with the original. First of all, the hydraulic system for lifting the launch containers with missiles and the chassis of the installation differ significantly from the original. The arrangement of the data transmission antenna also raises doubts.

The exact confirmation that the real system was hit would be objective control data with the results of the hit, but it is currently not available online. Locals also did not report any detonation of the munition, which would have occurred when the air defense system was hit.

It is reported that Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah militants have been hunting Israeli air defense systems for a long time. At the same time, this is the first publicly known case of terrorist attacks on Israeli air defense systems.

In addition to the air defense system, in recent days, Lebanese militants have also hit other Israeli equipment, including vehicles of the Israeli military, with recently delivered missile systems.

#Lebanon / #Palestine / #Israel ??????: #Hezbollah carried out a missile strike against an #IDF HMMWV vehicle (which was armed with FN MAG machine gun).

The attack was carried out with an #Iran-made ?? “ALMAS” missile —which is reverse-engineered copy of Israeli ‘Spike’ ATGM. pic.twitter.com/cLMp0JC6QX

— War Noir (@war_noir) June 2, 2024

Almas

The Almas is an Iranian ATGM believed to be a copy of the Israeli Spike. It was first publicly presented on July 7, 2021. Interestingly, it was Hezbollah militants who first seized Israeli ATGMs in 2006 during the Lebanon war.

The Almas missile’s principle of operation is “fire and forget,” although it also implements a method of manual targeting after the shot. The missile is available in surface-to-surface and air-to-surface versions.

Data transmission is implemented using an optical fiber communication line between the missile and the launcher.

It is equipped with a tandem warhead located immediately behind the GCS module in the bow. The missile reportedly has a range of 8 kilometers.