The large-scale Iranian missile and drone attacks have showcased the structural challenges embedded at the very heart of modern warfare: even an advanced air-defense system is not designed to operate in a protracted saturation scenario. The system was designed for interception, but not necessarily for endurance.

Israel’s multi-layered architecture—which includes the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow systems—remains inarguably one of the world’s most sophisticated systems. Nonetheless, the challenge Israel is faced with is no longer purely technological. Increasingly, it is evolving into an industrial matter. In a conflict defined by repeated missile and drone salvo attacks, the critical question lies not in whether Israel can intercept incoming threats, but in whether it can do so over a protracted time without depleting its stockpiles.

Iran’s evolving military doctrine is clearly illustrating this reality. Instead of solely relying on precision, Iran underscores scale: massive missile and drone attacks that are intended to overwhelm defenses through sheer numerical superiority. Even a highly effective system could face a compounded burden when it encounters a sustained and high-intensity incursion. Usually, interceptors are expensive, production inevitably requires time, while resupply cannot necessarily keep up with the tempo of consumption, especially during an ongoing conflict.

One way to address such a challenge is to rethink the problem not merely at the national level, but at the regional level.

If Iran’s strategy is to saturate defenses through scale, the........

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