Report: Israel took out most of Iran’s air defenses, left it ‘essentially naked’

The four Russian-made S-300 air defense systems that Israel has reportedly destroyed in strikes on Iran this year — one in April, and three more this month — had been the only such systems possessed by the Islamic Republic as of the beginning of this year, Fox News reports.

The Wall Street Journal has similarly reported that all of Iran’s existing S-300 batteries have now been disabled.

Fox News quotes an unnamed senior Israeli official as saying that “the majority of Iran’s air defense was taken out.”

It quotes US President Joe Biden’s senior Mideast adviser Amos Hochstein as saying on an internal call that “Iran is essentially naked” and vulnerable to potential future aerial attacks.

Israel has previously been reported to have also taken out other air defenses surrounding key energy facilities, as well as hitting drone-producing sites and key long-range missile-production facilities containing solid fuel mixers that will take at least a year to replace, hampering Iran’s ability to repeat its two missile attacks on Israel this year.