What does the leaked US assessment of Israel’s plans to strike Iran show?

Taken together, the two documents represent a classified US assessment of Israeli preparations to strike targets in Iran, based on geospatial intelligence collected and analyzed on October 15-16.

What stands out is the mention of two air-launched ballistic missile (ABLM) systems: Golden Horizon and Rocks.

“Rox” is a long-range missile system produced by the Israeli company Rafael, designed to destroy various targets both above and below ground. Golden Horizon is believed to refer to the Blue Sparrow missile system, which has a range of about 2,000 km (1,240 mi).

The significance of this is that it will indicate that the Israeli Air Force is planning to conduct a similar but greatly expanded version of an anti-ballistic missile attack (ABLM) on an Iranian radar near Isfahan in April.

Launching these weapons from a long distance and away from Iran’s borders would avoid the need for Israeli warplanes to fly over some countries in the region, such as Jordan.

The documents also report that there are no signs of any Israeli preparations to activate its nuclear deterrent.

At Israel’s request, the US government will never publicly admit that its close ally Israel even has nuclear weapons, which has caused some confusion in Washington.