How the Patriot air defence system stops Iran’s missiles and drones

This long-range conflict is being fought with aircraft, missiles and drones. Iran's huge inventory of missiles has been the target of US and Israeli airstrikes as launchers, launch sites and component factories are systematically targeted and destroyed. Israeli estimates of Iran's missile stocks before the war sat at around 2,500. Its inventory of armed drones, cheaper and easier to make, is much larger and in the tens of thousands. The main weapon Gulf nations, Israel and the US are using to stop Iran's missiles is the Patriot air defense system. Its advanced PAK-3 interceptors, moving at speeds in excess of 6,000 km per hour, can detect and hit incoming missiles from up to 160 km away. But they're expensive, at $4.5 million per interceptor and usually two or three are fired for every incoming missile. The Patriot interceptors are accurate and advanced, but they take a long time to make. Last year, Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer, made a total of 620 and these have to be divvied up between Ukraine, NATO allies, Japan, Taiwan, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as to protect the US bases in the region.