216: Chapter 216 This is a pretty good victory

The Juda Southern Military District Command had just seen five of its fighter jets shot down, and when dozens more drones entered Israeli airspace from the Sinai and Jordan directions to conduct airstrikes, it immediately flew into a rage.

Although they made some response, nearly ten military strongholds were destroyed, while only a dozen or so enemy drones were shot down.

After this exchange, Israel's losses were significant.

After all, an F-15 Eagle fighter jet costs nearly $200 million, and an F-16 Fighting Falcon costs over $100 million, while drones generally only cost one or two million dollars each.

Shooting down only a dozen or so enemy drones could not even make up for the loss of a single F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Furthermore, those destroyed military strongholds contained not only various weapons and equipment but also many stationed military personnel; these losses were even harder to calculate.

If weapons and equipment could be replenished through other channels, the loss of personnel was what made Israel suffer.

Although many reservists had already been called up, there were not many sources of troops left to fight after the call-up.

Of course, they could continue to recruit soldiers for replenishment, even going so far as to not spare Israeli men past the service age or women who would otherwise not have to serve.

But this would affect Israel's economic development and even directly impact its people's livelihood.

The Southern Military District Command had long anticipated the participation of Persian Gulf countries, but they did not want them to join the war so soon.

Israel had only been bombing the Gaza Region for less than a week, and the armed resistance personnel of Palestine had not been completely destroyed.

As Persian Gulf countries gradually entered the war, the difficulty for Israel to continue bombing the Gaza Region skyrocketed.

If they continued to use fighter jets for bombing, they would not dare to deploy them on a large scale under the interception of the Persian Gulf countries' air defense missiles.

If they only deployed in small numbers, the possibility of destroying the armed resistance personnel of Palestine would be greatly reduced.

It seemed they would have to resort to shelling using the multi-barrel rocket launchers and self-propelled artillery equipped by the Israeli Army, but this would bring up the problem of short range.

Currently, the 122mm multi-barrel rocket launchers equipped by Israel only have a range of 35 kilometers, and the longest-range 160mm multi-barrel rocket launchers only have a range of 60 kilometers, neither of which can cover the Gaza Region.

And the 52-caliber 155mm self-propelled artillery, even when using extended-range shells, only has a range of 40 kilometers.

Although it could shell most of the Gaza Region, the range was still too short after all.

Unless the Israeli Army could invade the Gaza Region, they would not be able to fully utilize the combat performance of the multi-barrel rocket launchers and self-propelled artillery.

Merely shelling from the perimeter of the Gaza Region would be difficult to achieve the operational objectives.

Just when the Juda Southern Military District Command thought that the Persian Gulf countries would not continue to launch drones for airstrikes, another alarm of aircraft intrusion sounded.

Watching the dense swarm of enemy aircraft appearing on the monitoring radar, the Southern Military District Command was furious.

The previous airstrike of over 50 drones had already left the Southern Military District Command scrambling, and now, with another 50+ drones appearing over Israel, just how many drones had the Persian Gulf countries committed to the war?

Moreover, with such a short interval, could the Persian Gulf countries really mobilize so many drones at once?

This required not only sufficient takeoff space but also enough missiles and personnel to satisfy such large-scale drone deployments.

The Southern Military District Command could only immediately order all air bases and air defense missile positions along the route to intercept them at once.

Soon, all air defense missile positions and air defense missile transport vehicles in the southern region of Israel were activated, beginning to lock onto the incoming enemy drones.

Upon seeing the news that the first drone had been locked onto, Major General Faye knew that Israel had made more thorough preparations.

After some consideration, he directly issued a new order: no longer bomb the Israeli military strongholds near the Gaza Region, but instead select nearby Israeli military targets for airstrikes.

Subsequently, scenes of confrontation and attacks between drones and air defense missile positions began to appear in the southern region of Israel.

Fireballs from "Tianlong" Series UAVs being shot down by air defense missiles appeared in the sky from time to time, but on the ground, there were also flashes of explosions as many air defense missile positions were hit by air-to-ground missiles.

Some drones, after being hit and damaged by air defense missiles and realizing they could not return, flew straight into Israeli military facilities carrying their air-to-ground missiles, plunging one of Israel's air bases and several military communication stations and military camps into a sea of fire.

After firing their air defense missiles, the Israeli air defense missile positions exposed their own locations and naturally became targets for the "Tianlong" Series UAVs.

Facing the incoming air-to-ground missiles, the air defense missile positions had no way to intercept all of them, and many were destroyed after firing only two rounds of missiles.

The engagement between the two sides did not last very long.

Seeing that the air-to-ground missiles carried by the "Tianlong" Series UAVs had been fired, Major General Faye ordered an immediate return.

Meanwhile, the Juda Southern Military District Command did not take any further measures after the enemy drones flew away.

After the engagement, the Aqaba Front Command and the Sinai Front Command tallied the results and found that more than 30 of the 70 "Tianlong" Series UAVs deployed in the second wave had been lost, and even among the returning drones, 10 had sustained some damage.

But the results were decent; one of Israel's air bases was paralyzed and would take at least a week to repair and use.

They also destroyed at least five air defense missile positions and more than ten Israeli military facilities.

As for how many of Israel's air defense missiles were consumed and whether any fighter jets at the air base were damaged by the aftermath, it was impossible to calculate.

The Juda Southern Military District Command soon received the battle report for this engagement.

Fortunately, that air base was only a reserve base and did not have many fighter jets parked there, so there was no loss of fighter jets; only two fighter jets were affected by the explosion and sustained some damage, which could be used after repairs.

The air defense missile positions destroyed by the enemy made the Southern Military District Command feel a heartache; not only were air defense missile equipment lost, but many officers and soldiers were also lost.

The only thing worth being happy about was that the number of Persian Gulf countries' drones shot down in this engagement exceeded the previous result; according to a rough estimate, at least 28 drones were shot down.

This counted as a decent victory.

After all, they had kept more than half of the enemy's drones.

The Southern Military District Command hurriedly ordered all military bases to continue keeping a close eye on all directions to prevent the Persian Gulf countries from continuing to launch drone attacks.