http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/iran-holds-biggest-air-defense-drill-yet-over-nuke-sites/All this week, Iran’s military will be strutting, flexing its muscles and showing its tail-feathers around its nuclear sites. Begun, this “Guardians of the Islamic Skies” air defense drill has.
Today, Iran kicked off one of its periodic air defense exercise, dubbed “the biggest” yet by Tehran’s state-run media. The drills, packaged with bravado about Iran’s air defense capabilities and focused on the protection of its nuclear infrastructure, are part of the Mullahs’ periodic saber-rattling against rumors of attacks by the United States and Israel.
This exercise will last five days and feature Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its paramilitary Basij forces joining in. Already this week, Iran has tested its radar and air defense missile systems against Iranian planes playing enemy forces, according to the wargames spokesman Brigadier General Hamid Arjangi. Its radar systems, Arjangi says, have already identified 194 previously unknown flying routes outside the country’s airspace and four within it.
Iran has a history of dubious weapons claims. So take with about a ton of salt any bragging from the Islamic Republic about its cool new military toys. In the past, Iran has tried to spin a SCUD as a “space missile,” oversold the capabilities of its homebrew drone, announced a “new” anti-aircraft artillery that wasn’t quite so new and photoshopped a purported Shahab-3 missile launch to make it look more fearsome.
With that in mind, keep your eyes out for any hint of a substitute for the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles it thought Russia was going to deliver. The S-300 missiles would have upgraded the range of Iran’s air defense systems to 200km – a boost from the 10km range provided by the TOR M-1 air defense missiles – and put a severe crimp in any U.S. or Israeli plans to bomb the country’s nuclear facilities. But the Russians recently nixed the long-promised system as a result of pressure from and improved ties with the United States. Iran may try to pretend that it’s already get a better missile system in its back pocket.
With some smack-talking and legal threats against Russia thrown in for good measure, Iran has made contradictory claims about its plans for an S-300 substitute. In August when the missiles’ sale was looking particularly imperiled, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency floated a story, disputed by western intelligence services, that the country had received four S-300 systems from Belarus. That same month, Iran’s defense minister announced the country would build its own damn S-300. And wouldn’t you know it, last week Iran said the homemade S-300 it had waited years for the Russians to deliver was already undergoing field modification and ready for testing just three months later.
Iran has made similarly bold claims about a new advanced and indigenously-built air defense radar. It announced this week that it was building an upgraded air defense radar system with a 3,000km range, an apparent improvement over its older 400km range systems. So far, the country has been unable to build a comprehensive, overlapping and interconnected radar network and has thus opted for a point defense, focused on protecting specific strategic facilities. In 2009, Iran restructured its military and created a distinct air defense command, split off from its air forces and placed under Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani, in order to increase the maneuverability and coherence of its air defenses.
Photo: Mehr
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