The D Brief: Iran’s missile attack on Israel; Russia seizes town; Ukraine gathers industry; Jan. 6 whitewash; And a bit more.

Shortly after U.S. officials predicted it publicly, Iran launched more than 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday, with dozens flying over Jerusalem’s Old City, a holy site for Muslims, Christians, and Jewish people around the world. 

Targets appear to have included Israel’s Nevatim airbase (which was also attacked in April); the Tel Nof airbase; and possibly the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, as well as locations around Tel Aviv, Matt Savill of the Royal United Services Institute said. A 38-year-old man from Gaza hit by debris was the only death from Iran’s attack. 

Why it happened: An Israeli airstrike Friday killed Iran-backed terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah along with a top Iranian paramilitary commander (Abbas Nilforoushan) while meeting at an underground facility in southern Beirut. Iranian generals felt some kind of missile attack was necessary in order to save face and appear strong to the world, three Iranian officials told the New York Times. 

Israel’s Arrow and David’s Sling air defense systems played the largest role intercepting Tuesday’s barrage. Raytheon and Israeli defense firm Rafael teamed up for David’s Arrow; Boeing and Israel Aerospace Industries joined forces to develop the Arrow. “Both systems along with the Iron Dome were utilized during Iran’s attack on Israel last April when 99% of the more than 300 drones, ballistic and cruise missiles launched by Iran were intercepted,” Luis Martinez of ABC News reports. 

Also pitching in: Two U.S. Navy destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea launched nearly a dozen interceptors at Iranian missiles headed toward Israel, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday. Those destroyers were the USS Bulkeley and the USS Cole. 

FWIW: “The IDF and the U.S. Armed Forces cooperated together in defense several days before, during, and after the Iranian attack,” the Israeli military said Wednesday morning, specifically noting Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi’s conversations with U.S. Central Command’s Michael Erik Kurilla. 

SecDef: “I am deeply proud of the skill and the bravery of the U.S. troops who helped to save lives today from Iran’s assault and who continue to support Israel’s defense and to prevent a widening conflict or escalation,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Tuesday evening. 

“Our forces remain postured to protect U.S. troops and partners in the Middle East, and the Department maintains significant capability to defend our people, provide further support for Israel’s self-defense, and deter further escalation,” Austin added. 

Israeli reax: “Iran made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video posted to social media. 

Next steps: “Israel will need to continue launching airstrikes further north if it wants to reduce further Hizballah’s longer-range precision missile stockpile, or strike new leadership targets,” RUSI’s Savill says. “The tempo of operations has already dropped off significantly from the first 48 hours of the Lebanon operation,” Savill noted, “but if it decides to launch a major strike against Iran in the near future, it might reprioritise aircraft away from Lebanon temporarily.” 

Developing: Israeli ground troops are skirmishing with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, including around the border town of Maroun el-Ras, Reuters reports from Beirut. The fighting has already claimed the life of at least one Israeli team commander and seven others, the IDF announced Wednesday. Israeli jets have also renewed airstrikes against suspected targets inside Beirut.  

What might lie ahead: Here’s a map of Lebanese towns Israel is targeting and has asked residents there to leave, via the New York Times graphics team.

Bigger picture consideration: “Nearly 1,900 people have been killed and more than 9,000 wounded in Lebanon in almost a year of cross-border fighting, with most of the deaths occurring in the past two weeks,” Reuters reports, citing Lebanese government statistics. In addition, “More than a million people have been forced to flee their homes,” the wire service adds. For the latest, the BBC has a robust live blog you can review here. 

Related reading: 

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Welcome to this Wednesday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 2018, Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and dismembered while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Two years after rollovers, Marines’ ACV is gingerly landing on Pacific beaches. The Corps has been carefully reintroducing its Amphibious Combat Vehicle to its intended habitat—the surf zone—after rollovers in 2022. In August, they sent ACVs ashore on a South Korean beach after a careful study that determined that it had a “negligible surf zone.” The care is part of an effort to build understanding of the vehicle’s characteristics and of how troops need to be trained to operate it. Defense One’s Sam Skove has more, here.

Additional reading: 

After more than two years of attacks, Russian invasion forces have seized the small Ukrainian city of Vuhledar, a coal-mining town of about 10,000 people (before the war) along Ukraine’s eastern front, the Institute for the Study of War reported Tuesday. Capturing the city could make it easier for Russia to advance on other two nearby cities occupying higher ground, Chasiv Yar and Toretsk, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

“Over the past few days Ukrainian soldiers had to find their own way out of Vuhledar by foot as it was impossible to evacuate them otherwise,” one soldier told the BBC. “Many were wounded and killed by Russian drones and artillery as they tried to leave, another soldier, Roman, says. Many more are still missing.”

Meanwhile in Kyiv, nearly 300 companies from over 30 countries sent reps to the Ukrainian capital for the second International Defense Industries Forum, which President Volodymir Zelenskyy is hoping can boost Ukraine’s domestic defense production. “We need foreign expertise, access to supply chains, and technology to continue this growth,” he said on social media Wednesday. 

In attendance: Reps from BAE Systems, KNDS, MBDA, D&M Holding Company, Amentum Services, Inc., AeroVironment, Inc., Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, Romarm, CZ Colt Group, Quantum Systems, Hellenic Defence Systems, and the DI Danish Defence & Security Industries Association, according to Zelenskyy’s office.

In the first half of 2024, “Ukraine produced 25 times more artillery and mortar ammunition than in the entire year of 2022,” Zelenskyy told the audience gathered in Kyiv Tuesday. “We are producing artillery, our ‘Bohdana’ howitzers, at a rate of 15 units monthly, and sometimes as many as 20,” he continued. And “The total number of drones we are now capable of producing annually in Ukraine is 4 million,” he said. 

“While years ago, the Ukrainian defense industry unfortunately looked helpless, today it is an industry that is on its way to leadership, at least in Europe,” Zelenskyy said. “There is no state sovereignty without the ability to defend oneself…we are grateful for everything we can do together today and in the future,” he told his audience. 

Related reading: 

• “The Lies Russia Tells Itself: The Country’s Propagandists Target the West—but Mislead the Kremlin, Too,” Thomas Rid of the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies writes in Foreign Affairs.

Lastly today: How to (try to) whitewash an insurrection. In Tuesday night’s debate between VP candidates, Ohio Sen. JD Vance claimed that his GOP running mate had no role in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. 

U.S. lawmakers: “The rioters were inside the halls of Congress because the head of the executive branch of our government, the then-President of the United States, told them to attack,” the House committee that investigated the attack wrote in the foreword to its final 2022 report.

Vance at the debate: “Remember, he said that on January 6th, the protesters ought to protest peacefully,” he said, omitting Trump’s exhortation to “fight like hell” to stop the certification of the 2020 election results, his repeated false claims of election fraud, and his efforts to stoke the ire of his supporters at a rally that morning. Vance also omitted mention of Trump’s refusal to  send in the National Guard as hundreds of rioters overwhelmed police and violently forced their way into the Capitol with the aim of stopping the transfer of power. 

Rewind: Watch extensive video from the Capitol riot, here. Read over the House’s 1,800-page investigation into the attack (summary; full report), whose foreword bears a reminder that you can review the charges in Trump’s second impeachment, here. You can also find the full transcript of Tuesday’s debate, via CBS News, here. 

Defense One