RT looks into the fighting capabilities of the respective countries as the conflict enters its second week

The US and Israel attacked Iran last Saturday, citing the need to curb the alleged threat posed by the Islamic Republic and the need to topple its government.

The bombing campaign started with attacks on the Iranian military and civilian leadership, taking the life of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several other senior officials.

The bombing campaign continued throughout the week, with multiple government sites, police stations, and military installations targeted. More than 1,300 civilians were killed in the US and Israeli attacks, including a large number of children, according to Tehran.

The bombing of a girls' elementary school in Minab, which left at least 168 minors dead, became the most prominent mass-casualty incident of the conflict thus far.

Iran retaliated with missile and kamikaze drone attacks on Israel and US military installations dotting the region. It launched strikes on its Arab neighbors in the Gulf, which house American bases, as well as multiple vessels attempting to cross the narrow Strait of Hormuz, effectively halting maritime traffic and sending global oil and gas prices through the roof.

RT looks into the fighting capabilities of the warring sides and the damage they have sustained.

Does Iran retain strike capabilities?

Tehran is believed to have a large stockpile of ballistic and cruise missiles of varying types, ranging between 2,500 and 6,000 units, according to different analysts. The munitions are kept in deep underground facilities, popularly known as "missile cities," which combine manufacturing and storage capabilities.

The missiles are capable of striking targets up to 2,000 km away - a self-imposed limit introduced by Iran back in 2015.

It remains unclear, however, whether the latest additions to Iran's arsenal actually adhere to the rule. Some analysts have suggested that the newer missiles, such as the Khorramshahr or Sejil systems, could potentially have a larger range, particularly if equipped with lighter warheads.

Iranian surface-to-surface missiles (L to R) Khorramshahr, Sejil, Emad, Qadr and Shahab-2 on display.

Getty Images / NurPhoto / Morteza Nikoubazl

Kamikaze drones remain the true backbone of Iran's strike capability, with Tehran launching assorted UAVs by the hundreds daily - and it is believed to be able to manufacture up to 10,000 UAVs monthly, according to independent estimates.

American installations across the Gulf states appear to have been primarily targeted by older Shahed-136 drones, which have proven to remain an effective tool. Their short travel distance and ability to fly at an extremely low altitude (the Persian Gulf is along their flight path) have allowed multiple munitions to penetrate the defenses of the US and its local partners and strike their targets unhindered, multiple videos circulating online suggest.

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The US and Israel have concentrated their effort on hunting down mobile missile launchers and drone staging areas. The effectiveness of the strikes is debatable, given that a sizable portion of kill videos released by the attacker appear to feature strikes on already destroyed hardware, as well as assorted dummies, ranging from sophisticated mockups to flat cutouts and even silhouettes painted on the ground.

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The US Central Command claimed on Friday that Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks have decreased by 90% since the first day of the war. Tehran has dismissed such assessments, insisting that the aggressors inflicted most damage on its civilians rather than warfighting capabilities.

The purported decline in Tehran's strikes is actually attributable to the tightening censorship efforts of the US, Israel, and the Gulf states to prevent civilians from filming damage inflicted, the Iranian Defense Ministry has suggested.

US-Israeli anti-air defenses on the brink?

The US has a vast inventory of different ground-based interceptors deployed into the region, backed up by naval vessels and aviation. The Patriot and THAAD systems are the backbone of this anti-missile defense, and more units will reportedly be redeployed to the Middle East from South Korea shortly. The Pentagon made such a redeployment amid the 12-day war between Israel and Iran last summer but has withdrawn the additional systems since then.

The continuing Iranian strikes have already battered the American anti-missile assets which were deployed to the Gulf states. The Islamic Republic claims to have destroyed multiple fixed and mobile radars, including components of Patriot and THAAD systems, which weakens the US early warning and interception capabilities.

While the Pentagon has remained silent on the damage sustained, the strikes on American radar and anti-aircraft assets, as well as communication systems, have been corroborated by footage circulating online and publicly available satellite imagery.

The availability of expensive interceptor missiles has also been called into question, given that they were used at an extremely high rate during the first week of the war.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed that some 800 Patriot missiles were used in the Middle East in just three days - around a year's worth of production - and more than Kiev has expended since 2022. While Zelensky's assessment should be taken with a grain of salt, given his ever-growing demand for weaponry, numerous videos circulating online show interceptors spent en masse during attempts to repel Iranian strikes.

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The US also possesses assorted short-range anti-aircraft systems (SHORAD), primarily based on Stinger MANPADS and AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire missiles, which are mounted on different chassis. Some of the US military installations are equipped with fixed C-RAM systems, a land variant of the navy's Phalanx system featuring a 20 mm Gatling gun. Such a system of the type was seen activated at an American base in Erbil, Iraq, apparently failing to intercept an incoming drone.

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Multiple media outlets have reported that the Pentagon leadership sounded the alarm over Iran's drone capabilities and gaps in the US defenses against them at a private briefing on Capitol Hill this week. A team of senior military officials, led by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, reportedly told the lawmakers the US went in "ill-prepared" and largely lacks cost-effective means to intercept cheap Iranian UAVs.

Is the conflict sustainable for the US and Israel?

The US and Israel have been relying primarily on medium-to-long-range high-precision weaponry to attack targets inside Iran throughout the first week of the hostilities. The strikes involved air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, assorted guided munitions, and glide bombs, as well as the limited use of ballistics and kamikaze drones.

The US ability to replenish stocks of sophisticated munitions, which are expensive and produced in a relatively small scale, remains to be seen, as Washington has sent mixed messages on the sustainability of the conflict. While US President Donald Trump has insisted the war can be waged "forever" until Iran offers "unconditional surrender," he has also demanded the key American manufacturers ramp up their output fourfold.

Large quantities of the sophisticated munitions appear to have been spent on questionable targets, unclassified footage released by the attackers indicates. Apart from numerous suspected decoys, multiple strikes targeted old Iranian aircraft, including F-14 Tomcat and F-5 Tiger II fighter jets and Fokker F27 Friendship turboprop transport planes, which predate the 1979 Islamic Revolution and have been unairworthy for decades already.

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The US and Israel have also sunk multiple Iranian warships, most of which were destroyed at ports, with some seen anchored board-to-board and likely inoperable.

READ MORE: Who will invade Iran for the US?

The attackers have also actively used medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) attack drones, such as the American MQ-9 Reaper and the Israeli Hermes-900, for reconnaissance, targeting, and direct ground strikes.

Multiple MALE drones were shot down by the Iranian forces during the week, with the kills corroborated by footage of the hits and imagery of debris recovered on the ground.

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The successful strikes on the UAVs, which unlike crewed aircraft penetrate deep into Iranian territory, indicate that Tehran still retains anti-air capabilities despite Washington's repeated claims of achieving air superiority over Iran.

(RT.com)