"A lot of things have been learned. The Israelis were fairly confident going into this that they had the means and technology to defend themselves. What we saw proves that. There were in excess of 100 ballistic missiles fired at Israel, only a couple got through," Austin said, as quoted by Haaretz.
"What we saw was a significant display of combined cooperation between partners and allies to work together and make it a bit easier for Israel to defend itself. All of that came together like we thought it would because we train together, we rehearse on various things with partners and allies. What you saw is a result of that," Austin continued.
"What the Iranians learned, I'm not really sure. But what they should learn – their systems do not work as advertised, and they employed a lot of munitions with the intent of creating significant damage in Israel. None of that worked, it should give them pause, and they should be questioning the effectiveness of their weapons systems and their planning,” the Defense Secretary stated.
“I'm sure some of that's probably going on, and if not it should be. Hopefully they don't walk away from this overconfident," he added.
US officials told ABC News after Iran’s April 13 attack that half of the missiles launched by Iran either failed to launch or crashed before reaching their target.
In a statement published hours after the Iranian attack on Israel, Austin said, "We condemn these reckless and unprecedented attacks by Iran and its proxies, and we call on Iran to immediately halt any further attacks, including from its proxy forces, and to deescalate tensions. We do not seek conflict with Iran, but we will not hesitate to act to protect our forces and support the defense of Israel.”
Last Friday, blasts were heard in the Iranian city of Isfahan in what was believed to have been an Israeli retaliation for Iran’s attack.
An Israeli official told The Washington Post that the strike on Iran "was intended to signal to Iran that Israel had the ability to strike inside the country."
