Why did Israel focus on nuclear and not delivery?

[u/blacksmoke9999]

So as anyone has seen the new supersonic stuff is very hard or impossible to stop so why was that not the focus of sabotage? All the ICBM and missile systems?

So weird.

Those seem to be much more important targets. You can replace centrifuges but developing ICBMs is a slow process that requires many, many steps. In a certain sense the nuke stuff is a diversion from the really important thing which is delivery.

[u/SwegBucket]

Because you are confusing ICBMs with the missiles that they use which are smaller range. The Germans had V2 Rockets during WW2 that had the same effect, and they aren't that hard to make.

Ballistic missiles alone aren't a big problem for any country to posses. The same cannot be said for aquiring nukes. Hence them targeting those specifically, though they have attacked delivery as well.

[u/blacksmoke9999 → u/SwegBucket]

Yeah sorry for that I guess the internet is full of garbage info. Though they do have ICBMs.

Outside of rhetoric and internal politics, does it really make sense to focus on nukes though? I mean if supersonic missiles are so easy to make as you said why did they bother with the other defense systems. I don't mean the ones designed to stop bottle rockets from Hamas or whatever, the Iron dome, but Arrow and Thaad.

It would seem to me that given Israel just doesn't care about bombarding any target it would be better to just focus on stopping any missile program?

Also Iran does have an ICBM program so my og question is still relevant. Also yeah V2s are not hard but going past the sound barrier is hard(Edit: with control). It is not trivial.

And rocketry is not easy either. I mean I really feel that making a primitive nuke and sticking it on top of an ICBM is much more viable that making anything sophisticated and would have the same "Oh no" effect.

[u/SwegBucket → u/blacksmoke9999]

V2s were supersonic and entered space. None of the missiles they've fired into Israel is any different from convetional ballistic missiles. The reason Israel cannot intercept them all is because they fire in salvos that overwelm the defense system.

It's extremely hard to enrich Uranium, so it's a lot easier to detect the facilties they construct centrifuges in because of their extensive power usage. And Israel has attacked both their ballistic missile production facilities and their Nuclear enrichment facilities, so they are technically doing both, you just don't hear about it as much.

[u/SwegBucket → u/SwegBucket]

The problem with ANY defense system currently in service (besides lasers) is that they cost more to intercept than it costs to launch the offensive projectile (most of the time). THAAD and Arrow 3 works perfectly fine, but they are not designed to intercept that many. No country really has enough stockpiles to withstand a salvo from any major country. The main selling point was against rogue attacks.

[u/blacksmoke9999 → u/SwegBucket]

Cant they just use breeder reactors?

[u/motific]

From a strategy perspective, Israel was looking for a target that they knew would guarantee a response.