"The Israeli attack on Hamas targets in Qatar came without any warning signs because all our surveillance assets and attention were not focused there. No one anticipated this would happen," said General Derek France, air component commander for CENTCOM, on 9/24.
CENTCOM is responsible for all US military operations in the Middle East. General France made these remarks during a discussion about the aftermath of Israel's strike on Doha, Qatar, earlier that month. The incident raised questions about why US and Qatari air defenses and advanced sensors failed to detect and intercept the threat.
General France noted that Israel did not inform the US about the attack beforehand. Washington only detected the incident through regional surveillance systems after the missiles had already been launched. "We later communicated with our Israeli counterparts, but the alert from our surveillance system was the first indication the US military received," he emphasized.
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A damaged building after the Israeli attack on Doha, Qatar on 9/9. Photo: Reuters |
A damaged building after the Israeli attack on Doha, Qatar on 9/9. Photo: Reuters
According to General France, the US military possesses "sophisticated systems capable of detecting various targets," but they are typically focused on Iran and other areas CENTCOM deems potential attack vectors.
He said the US military learned a valuable lesson from the incident: the need for appropriate warning systems and alert methods to detect attacks promptly.
According to the military news site War Zone, while the US military can detect ballistic missile launches globally, it still faces challenges tracking missiles traveling at high altitudes mid-flight.
The Pentagon hopes to overcome this weakness in the future by developing a space-based sensor network specifically designed to track ballistic missiles during their mid-course phase.
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Trajectory of the Israeli missiles during the attack on Doha, Qatar, on 9/9. Graphic: WSJ |
Trajectory of the Israeli missiles during the attack on Doha, Qatar, on 9/9. Graphic: WSJ
On 9/10, US President Donald Trump said that after being informed by the US military about Israel's actions, he instructed his staff to notify Qatar, but it was "too late" to prevent the strike. "A US official called while explosions were happening in Doha," said Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari.
According to unnamed US and Israeli officials, Tel Aviv deployed 15 fighter jets to the Red Sea to launch at least 10 ballistic missiles at the Hamas political leadership's offices in Doha. This tactic allowed Israeli aircraft to avoid entering the airspace of other Middle Eastern countries, and the missiles also approached from a direction not typically monitored by Qatari air defenses.
The attack killed five low-ranking Hamas members and one Qatari security officer. However, the group's political leadership survived because they had left the meeting room to pray just as the missiles struck.
Pham Giang (According to War Zone)
