The war in Ukraine has shown that on the battlefield today, both cutting-edge weaponry and military equipment can be used "side by side" with quite outdated models produced in the last century. Recently, a similar incident occurred in Israel, where the air force of that country launched missiles from their aircraft, with a significant age difference spanning several decades.
This refers to one of the airstrikes against Yemeni Houthis in December of this year, when around a dozen and a half IAF aircraft targeted sites such as ports and energy infrastructure in Yemen, as noted by the publication The War Zone.
According to footage released by the IAF, the sortie included F-15 and F-16 aircraft. The F-15s were armed with Popeye air-to-surface missiles.
These missiles are an Israeli development specifically created for the military of this country and have been in service with the IAF since 1985. Besides Israel, these missiles have been exported to other countries, primarily to the United States, where they were retired in 2004.
The standard version of the Popeye missile weighs 1360 kg, of which the warhead accounts for 340-360 kg depending on the type, and can destroy targets at a range of 78 km.
Meanwhile, Israeli F-16s were spotted with the Rampage missile - a development from Elbit Systems, which is essentially an adaptation of the Extra missile for launches from aircraft, and is analogous to GMLRS for HIMARS. Rampage can strike targets at distances of up to 250 km. The missile was officially introduced in 2018.
Previously, Defense reported that if Ukraine develops several ballistic missiles, it could mention Rampage for the MiG-29 and Lora for the F-16.