In the course of the eight 12 months Iran-Iraq Battle, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran suffered from its negligible floor based mostly anti plane capabilities which left its territory open to heavy bombardment by Iraqi fighters and bombers. Solely the Iranian fighter fleet, specifically its F-14 Tomcat heavyweight air superiority fighters, might present a point of safety, with these jets geared up with AIM-54 Phoenix missiles and used to fly patrols round Iranian cities and army amenities. This was significantly extra expensive than using floor based mostly methods, whereas additionally forcing the Iranian Air Power to take care of an overwhelmingly defensive posture the place F-14s would in any other case have been free to take to the offensive. Iran’s lack of air defences would stay a major subject lengthy after the warfare resulted in 1988 and into the twenty first century.
In 2002 Iran was labeled by Washington as a member of the Axis of Evil and made potential goal for U.S. army intervention. The nation’s air defence capabilities remained negligible to non existent to the extent that hostile U.S. plane, missing any superior radar evading capabilities reportedly steadily penetrated deep into Iranian airspace with out detection. U.S. cruise missiles would additionally commonly go by means of Iranian airspace to succeed in targets in Iraq, and even cumbersome American transport plane and tankers working in neighbouring Afghanistan and Iraq have been seen to face little significant menace. Iran’s radar community was thought of inadequate even for air site visitors management functions, not to mention for army use.
Iran confronted threats from the potent air fleets of the USA and its regional allies equivalent to Israel and Saudi Arabia. all three of which fielded sizeable items of excessive efficiency fighters such because the F-15 together with each its strike and air superiority variants. Whereas Iran fielded a small fleet of F-14s, which suffered from an absence of spare components and ageing avionics, its aerial warfare capabilities have been in any other case negligible. With an built-in air defence missile community being far cheaper to accumulate than a contemporary fight fleet Iran started to hunt trendy floor to air missile methods as an uneven defensive measure to guard its airspace. This got here in response to each the shifting stability of energy within the Center East after the Chilly Battle’s finish, which noticed neighbouring Iraq devastated by U.S. led airstrikes, and later to the menace posed by the sizeable U.S. army presence which rapidly emerged in each Iraq and Afghanistan within the early 2000s.
Iran had made restricted effort to modernise its air defences after the Iran-Iraq Battle, putting orders for MiG-29 medium weight fighters from the Soviet Union and J-7 light-weight fighters from China shortly after hostilities concluded. Plans to accumulate additional MiG-29 squadrons alongside the extra succesful MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors have been stymied by the collapse of the Soviet Union, with the newly fashioned Russian Federation sustaining shut ties with the Western Bloc and being inclined to Western stress to not switch these methods. Iran did nonetheless handle to accumulate S-200 floor to air missile system, which was a sophisticated late Soviet variant of the design able to participating targets at ranges of as much as 300km. The platform lacked lots of the superior capabilities of newer methods such because the S-300PMU-2 equivalent to a chilly launch system, however benefitted from an extended vary and comparatively superior digital warfare countermeasures. HQ-2 methods, derived from the Soviet S-75, have been additionally supplied by China and supplied a significant enchancment to the nation’s floor to air missile community. A serious weak point of al these methods, nonetheless, was an virtually full lack of mobility leaving them extremely weak to assaults by devoted air defence suppression items.
Iran’s efforts to modernise its air defences escalated within the mid 2000s, with the nation establishing a devoted air defence department separate from the Air Power in 2008. Iran additionally signed a contract for 5 battalions Russia’s S-300PMU-1 floor to air missile system for $800 million, though in 2009 Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev administration cancelled the deal because it sought nearer ties to the Western Bloc main Tehran to reply by taking authorized motion in opposition to Russia. In the end Iran would later obtain a extra succesful customised variant of the S-300 based mostly on the S-300PMU-2 in 2017 beneath a brand new Russian administration, with new missiles acquired in 2020 to boost the methods. Iran additionally invested in buying shorter ranged complementary methods from Russia within the mid 2000s together with the quick ranged Tor-M2 and medium ranged BuK-M2 methods, which in contrast to the S-300PMU-1 didn’t see their deliveries blocked. Orders have been additionally positioned within the early 2010s for Pantsir-S1 quick ranged air defences fight automobiles. These methods all complemented each other, and have been supplemented by the acquisition of Russian Rezonans-NE radar methods, which have been reportedly utilized in 2020 to detect close by actions of F-35 stealth fighters.
In parallel to overseas acquisitions Iran additionally invested in growing indigenous air defence methods, and is imagined to have benefitted from the switch of North Korean applied sciences because the East Asian state concurrently developed its personal trendy lengthy vary methods. Iran unveiled the Bavar-373 lengthy ranged system in 2016, which had an engagement vary of 200km, and three years later would unveil a second lengthy ranged platform generally known as the Khordad 15. These packages have been pursued in parallel to growth of quick and medium ranged methods such because the third of Khordad, which noticed fight in 2019 when it shot down an American RQ-4 World Hawk surveillance drone which Tehran claimed had violated its airspace. Iran additionally invested in reverse engineering and modernising American air defence methods it had acquired within the Seventies, which with prolonged ranges, improved flight performances and new digital warfare countermeasures added low value new layers to its community. Most notable amongst these was the Mersad which was based mostly on the American MIM-23 Hawk quick ranged system. An analogous reverse engineering and modernisation program was carried out for the Iranian Air Power’s AIM-54 Phoenix missiles, additionally acquired from the USA within the Seventies, which have been fielded because the Fakour 90 and benefitted from a considerably improved vary. These missiles complemented enhancements to the F-14’s electronics and integration of latest and extra highly effective radars onto the jets – which have been derived from the unique American AN/AWG-9 radars. Iranian sources additionally claimed that modernisation of the S-200 system, which the nation remained the most important operator of, had supplied them with mobility the place that they had beforehand been deployed as mounted websites.
Iran in the present day fields what’s probably the Center East’s most succesful multi-layered air defence community, which has demonstrated its capabilities in opposition to excessive finish targets together with the RQ-4 and maybe extra considerably the RQ-170 stealth drone in 2011. The RQ-170 was one fo the stealthiest plane ever developed on the time, and was extremely secretive and operated in restricted numbers completely by the CIA. Iran’s means to not solely detect the plane, but in addition to trace it, commandeer its sign and land it at an Iranian airfield represented a significant feat demonstrating its newfound safety in opposition to air assaults. Simply six years prior Iran had been unable to even detect, not to mention carry down, a lot bigger non-stealthy American jets. Belarusian and Chinese language help for the operation to commandeer the RQ-170 have each been reported however are unconfirmed. Iran’s manufacturing of superior air defence methods domestically has additionally been a significant growth, consistent with its longstanding coverage of substituting arms imports with home analogues. The nation’s air defence community has been significantly crucial in gentle of each exterior threats and the relative weak point of the Iranian Air Power, which apart from its two F-14 squadrons lacks any items geared up with lively radar guided air to air munitions. This might change within the close to future because the nation considers buying new fighter courses, most notably the Chinese language J-10C and Russian Su-35, and as work on indigenous fighter packages intensifies.
