An
Iranian government official claimed earlier this week that its
Russian-made air defenses were compromised by Moscow, leaving Iran and
its allies defenseless against Israeli airstrikes. An engineer with
Tehran's Ministry of Defense alleged that codes forcing anti-aircraft
missiles to treat hostile Israeli fighters as friendly were sold to Tel
Aviv, effectively neutralizing Syria and Iran's S-300 surface-to-air
missile systems.
An Iranian official, described by the Jerusalem Post as a senior member of Iran's Defense Ministry, told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida
that Russia had sold "codes" to Israel that identified Israeli aircraft
as friendly. The codes were used by Israel to prevent its aircraft from
being targeted. Israel has flown dozens of air raids over Syria, and
despite advanced air defenses, only the latest raid, flown last Friday,
involved an actual missile launch.
The article doesn't say what the Iranians mean by "codes", but Tehran apparently means the Identify Friend or Foe codes
that aircraft transmit to avoid being shot down by their own air
defenses. The S-300 missile, an older surface-to-air missile similar to
the American Patriot, was identified as the affected system. The S-300s
not only would refuse to engage the Israeli planes, the report says, but
also they wouldn't give notice that the planes had taken off from
nearby Israel, giving Syrian troops time to prepare.
According to Al-Jarida,
"Iranians and the Syrians suspected that Russia gave the codes for the
air defense system to Israel and even refused the requests of Tehran and
Damascus to check the codes." As the story goes, Iran managed to change
the codes on its own supplied S-300 missile systems, then sent
engineers to Syria to change the codes on Syrian S-300s, which also
protect Hezbollah forces from aerial attack. The fact that the Syrian
S-300s finally launched after the codes were changed confirmed to the
Iranians that Russia had thrown them under the bus.
Could
there be any truth to the claims? It is unlikely that Russia would
intentionally give IFF codes to the enemies of its allies, the Syrians
and Iranians, and allow them to be bombed with impunity. Not only would
that anger the Syrian government, it would also potentially endanger
Russian troops operating in Syria. The simpler explanation is that
Israeli radar jamming is very good and outmatches the older S-300
technology. The allegation is also contradicted by news reports that Syrian S-300s are under the control of Russian forces.
We'll
soon find out whether there is anything to the Iranian allegations. If
Israeli airstrikes into Syria stop, then there may be something to the
claims. If there are more Israeli strikes in Syria and no further S-300
launches, it may be that the earlier missile launch was a one-off and
that there was no transfer of codes.
Source: Jerusalem Post
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