As Israel debates response to Iran, what would both countries wield in an air war?
Iran, with its outdated air defense systems, would likely aim for occasional success, experts say, while Israel’s allies would limit country’s exposure to some of the threats
Iran’s unprecedented direct attack on Israel on April 13 has brought renewed focus on their air defense capabilities, as Israeli leaders decide how best to respond.
Below is a look at both countries’ air forces and aerial defense systems:
Iran
The Iranian air force has 37,000 personnel, but decades of international sanctions have largely cut the country off from the latest high-tech military equipment, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London (IISS).
The air force only has a few dozen working strike aircraft, including Russian jets and aging American models acquired before the Iranian revolution in 1979.
Tehran has a squadron of nine F-4 and F-5 fighter jets, one squadron of Russian-made Sukhoi-24 jets, and some MiG-29s, F7 and F14 aircraft, IISS said.
The Iranians also have pilotless planes designed to fly into targets and explode. Analysts believe this drone arsenal numbers in the low thousands. In addition, they say, Iran has more than 3,500 surface-to-surface missiles, some of which carry half-ton warheads. The number capable of reaching Israel may be lower, however.
Iran’s Air Force Commander, Hamid Vahedi, on Wednesday said the Sukhoi-24s, were in their “best state of preparedness” to counter any potential Israeli attack.
But Iran’s dependence on Sukhoi-24s jets, first developed in the 1960s, shows the relative weakness of its air force.
For defense, Iran relies on a mixture of Russian and domestically produced surface-to-air missile and air defense systems.
Tehran received deliveries of the S-300 anti-aircraft system from Russia in 2016, which are long-range surface-to-air missile systems capable of engaging multiple targets simultaneously, including aircraft and ballistic missiles.
Iran also has the domestically produced Bavar-373 surface-to-air missile platform, as well as the Sayyad and Raad defense systems.
“If there was a major conflict between the two countries, Iran would probably concentrate on occasional successes,” Fabian Hinz, a research fellow at IISS, said. “They don’t have the comprehensive air defenses that Israel has.”
Israel
Israel has an advanced, United States-supplied air force with hundreds of F-15, F-16 and F-35 multipurpose jet fighters. These played a role in shooting down some 350 Iranian drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles at the weekend.
The air force lacks long-range bombers, though a smaller fleet of repurposed Boeing 707s serve as refueling tankers that could enable its fighters to reach Iran for pinpoint sorties.
A pioneer in drone technology, Israel has Heron pilotless planes capable of flying for more than 30 hours, enough for far-flung operations. Its Delilah loitering munition has an estimated range of 250 kilometers (155 miles) — far short of the Gulf, though the air force could close the gap by delivering one of the munitions closer to Iran’s border.
Israel is widely believed to have developed long-range surface-to-surface missiles, but neither confirms nor denies this. In 2018, then-defense minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that the Israeli military would get a new “missile force.” The military has not said where those plans now stand.
A multi-layer aerial defense system developed with US help after the 1991 Gulf War provides Israel with several additional options for shooting down long-range Iranian drones and missiles.
The highest-altitude system is Arrow-3, which intercepts ballistic missiles in space. An earlier model, Arrow-2, works at lower altitudes. The mid-range David’s Sling counters ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, while the short-range Iron Dome tackles the kind of rockets and mortars by the Iranian-backed Hamas terror group in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — but can also, in theory, be fired at any more powerful missiles missed by Arrow or David’s Sling.
The Israeli systems are designed to be patched into counterpart US interceptors in the region for coalition-strength defenses.
“Israel’s air defenses performed well over the course of the attack,” said Sidharth Kausha, a research fellow at the Royal United Strategic Institute in London.
He noted that some of the incoming targets, particularly drones, were shot down by allied aircraft belonging to the United Kingdom, the US and Jordan before they reached Israel, “which limited its degree of exposure to some threat types.”
“There appears to have been sufficient early warning to enable preparation of a coalition response, which means the system was better prepared than it might have been if exposed to a similar attack with less early warning,” he added.
