From defense batteries to air power, Iran is redrawing its military might
By Shadab Asgari
Foreign policy expert
In the aftermath of the 12-day conflict with Israel in June, Iran’s military capability has been strengthened on several fronts and the Armed Forces are now said to be prepared to meet any military threat. Reports have circulated that Iran is moving to acquire Russian Su-35, MiG-35 and MiG-29 fighters, along with S-400 air-defense batteries.
These procurements were not conceived solely in response to the Israeli war. A large share stems from pre-existing defense planning, but given the country’s current circumstances those plans have reportedly been fast-tracked. Some of the equipment may already have been purchased earlier, and authorities have apparently permitted details of the deals to leak out.
A country’s military doctrine does not shift overnight; it is written with a range of anticipated threats in mind. Iran’s defense doctrine envisages all possible scenarios by which the country might be threatened, and sets out appropriate responses accordingly.
During the recent conflict, Iran deployed some of its long-held weapons, putting their strengths and weaknesses to the test in real combat conditions. To address certain shortcomings exposed during the fighting, Tehran appears to be rebalancing some of its defenses from ground-based systems toward an aerial-layer defense — a shift that requires bolstering the combat aircraft fleet. In an air-based defense model, radar systems feed data on hostile fighters and other aerial aircraft to interceptors, which then act to neutralize threats from the air.
Over the same period, several of Iran’s ground-based radar and air-defence systems have been upgraded and shortcomings remedied. For example, radars resistant to electronic warfare and cyber-attacks have been rolled out across the country and put into service after the conflict.
Under Iran’s 25-year cooperation agreement with China and the 20-year strategic deal with Russia, defense and military items form part of the bilateral agendas. Given the present security climate, Tehran has reportedly asked its partners to speed up delivery of some military equipment earlier than expected.
Overall, authorities have mobilized full efforts to reinforce the country’s military might. Iran entered the Israeli imposed war equipped with capable hardware and were constrained by the support the United States and its Western allies provided to Israel; absent that backing, Iran’s blows to the Israeli regime would have been far heavier.
Some Iranian missiles were intercepted by US and allied air-defense systems, and US aircraft jammed Iranian radars, which hindered defensive performance. However, many of these flaws have since been significantly fixed.
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