Exactly one year after Iran’s first direct attack on Israel in April 2024, the U.S. Air Force published interviews on Sunday with the American pilots who defended Israeli airspace when more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles were fired toward the country, taking part in the unprecedentedly successful interception effort.
“The radar just lit up,” one pilot described the first moments of the attack. “At that point, we were in an hour-long fight, just trying to destroy whatever we could.”
Another pilot explained, “I received the green light to take off, just another night mission like all the others.”
A third pilot added, “We were out there for a couple of hours with no clear understanding of what was happening, and we thought maybe it was already over.”
One year ago today, Iran launched 300 missiles and drones at Israel. Our aviators risked everything to stop it. These heroes will never know how many innocent lives they saved that night. Hear the story from those who lived it. Damn proud of these patriots! pic.twitter.com/ekiXHhRmAS
— General Ken Wilsbach (@OfficialCSAF) April 13, 2025
“Boards got the first lock, did exactly what he was taught and fired within about 20 seconds,” one pilot recounted about his colleague. The young pilot described his own experience, “I’m going to do this, I’ll be the first one in my formation, and I’m by far the least experienced. I gave someone an opportunity to tell me not to do it. ... Nobody answered, so I said, ‘Alright.’”
“The radar identifies another one, and another one. All attacking drones,” another pilot described the battle.
One of the pilots portrayed the scene: “The ground was burning. You could see each of the drones that was hit.”
Squadron commander Lt. Col. Kevin Murphy said, “It took about 45 minutes to fire all the missiles we had before we had to return after running out of ammunition.”
“Three hundred [Iranian] weapons were fired at a target. Only six of them hit. Nobody died. That’s defending our allies. We got to be part of something meaningful and impactful,” another pilot reflected at the end of the video.
Israeli, American, Jordanian, British and French fighter jets participated in intercepting the missiles and drones. American aircraft destroyed more than 80 Iranian munitions, with more than half of them threatening Israel. Israeli systems, primarily the Arrow and David’s Sling systems, intercepted about 90% of the ballistic missiles.
In total, approximately 99% of the threats launched at Israel were intercepted, an unprecedented achievement in the history of aerial warfare.
The timing of this video release may serve as a message to Iran that the United States remains committed to Israel’s defense.
Originally published by Israel Hayom.
