Israel's preparations for war with Iran: A race against time to stockpile arms

Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Akram Chehayeb

On both the security and military levels in Israel, there is no disagreement that war with Iran is inevitable.

The odds are that if it does not happen by the end of this month, it will happen by the end of the year.

The Israeli Air Force has begun undertaking preparations by setting a budget of half a billion dollars to purchase two air refueling aircraft from the United States, so that Tel Aviv will have six such aircraft, namely the KC-46 produced by Boeing.

To expedite the acquisition of the planes, a delegation from the Israeli Ministry of Security arrived in Washington to sign the purchase contract, after it was approved by a ministerial committee on weapons supply.

These preparations coincide with the escalation of Israeli threats to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear and missile capabilities.

While Israel is promoting the idea that the next war with Iran will be more dangerous and cruel, Israeli intelligence has leaked the scenarios that Iran may adopt in the war.

The most prominent of them are attempting to acquire new air defense systems, mostly from Russia, and rebuilding its surface-to-surface missile system to ensure it can deter Israel.

In the face of these threats and preparations, warnings against fighting such a war have increased, especially in light of the shortage of Israeli defense systems, whether Arrow 3 missiles or THAAD, as well as their high cost.

It turned out that the cost of each Arrow 3 missile used by Israel to counter Iranian missiles two months ago amounted to three million dollars. 
 
According to research conducted by Haaretz newspaper, during the last war, Israel used 150 THAAD missiles, each of which costs four times as much as an Arrow 3 missile. The stockpile of these missiles, like the Arrow 3 missiles, is not enough for a war similar to the last one.