The Iranian-backed militias that make up the so-called “Axis of Resistance” have recently made ambitious statements related to their air defense capabilities.
Hezbollah recently spoke to the press about Israeli weapons captured in wars beyond southern Lebanon.
Pointing to an old, Soviet-made SA-6 “Gainful” surface-to-air missile formula (NATO calls NATO the Soviet 2K12 “Kub” surface-to-air missile formula), a Hezbollah-appointed consultant warned that the defense force had, or could soon acquire, the much more modern and strategic S-300, according to The Globe and Mail.
“Do you think we don’t have S-300s?” he asked rhetorically before adding, in English: “If Iran has S-300s, Hezbollah will surely take over the S-300s. “
Iran acquired S-300 PMU-2 missiles from Russia in 2016, but there is no indication that it has transferred any to Hezbollah.
This is not the only dubious procurement claim made recently through members of the Axis.
In June, a senior commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces told Middle East Eye that the organization had acquired new Russian weaponry, adding the S-400 missile system. Newer than the S-300, the S-400, introduced in 2007, is one of the Russian military’s toughest air defense batteries. Iran has an S-400.
At the start of the war in Ukraine, an unconfirmed Guardian report claimed that Iran had transferred one of its Bavar-373 air defense systems, Iran’s S-300, to Moscow, along with rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles. from their PMFs. Proxies.
Iraq has thought about buying S-300 or S-400 missiles in recent years, but in the end never ordered any. Its most complex air defenses are the Russian medium-range Pantsir-S1 (which NATO calls the SA-22 “Greyhound”). “) acquired in the 2010. No there are indications that the PMF has access to these systems.
While the PMFs expected something in return for those transfers, an S-400 would hardly have been a realistic expectation. After all, Turkey paid more than $2. 5 billion for two formulas and 120 interceptor missiles. In addition, there is the surprising fact that handing over such a tough air defense formula to a sub-state actor in Iraq would be noticed, especially if they attempted to deploy it.
The PMF had in the past expressed its goal of deploying some form of air defense. A series of shadowy airstrikes allegedly carried out across Israel targeted PMF bases in Iraq in mid-2019. Soon after, local Iraqi media published a leaked document purportedly belonging to the PMF, describing the group’s resolve to form an “air force. “Progress, if any, on this front in the coming years remains uncertain, but probably won’t come with the acquisition of the S-400.
In 2013 there was much speculation about when Russia would deliver to Syria the S-300 air defense formulas that Damascus had ordered in 2010, a year before the start of the Syrian civil war. This far-reaching formula is far more complex than anything else. in Syria’s existing air defense arsenal, which is usually made up of replaced Soviet-era formulas, with a few notable exceptions such as the Pantsir.
Israel was concerned about the prospect of such a delivery, as it had just begun its covert aerial crusade over the country, dubbed “the war between wars,” aimed at preventing Iran from moving complex missile systems to Hezbollah in Lebanon through Syria. This crusade continues to this day.
At the time, Russian journalist Igor Korotchenko rejected the idea that Russia could simply quietly deliver such a giant formula without being detected by U. S. and Israeli intelligence by satellite.
“You can’t hide the S-300s in your pocket. If they had handed them over, Western intelligence would have made an announcement,” he told the Guardian at the time.
The same rule applies to those ambitious and unverified claims through Hezbollah and the PMF related to this strategic weaponry.
By the way, Syria, despite everything, won an S-300 formula in 2018. However, the formula remained firmly under the control of Russian workers and was eventually removed from the country in 2022, emphasizing that it never belonged to Syria.
Israelis have expressed fear about the evolution of Hezbollah’s air defenses.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv quoted IDF command resources in June expressing fear about “Hezbollah’s resolve to limit the Israeli Air Force to Russian air defense systems, SA-8 and SA-22. “
The move, they said, “constitutes a basic replacement for Hezbollah’s Strategic Concept, according to which it attempts to limit the overall freedom of operation of the Israeli Air Force. “
The SA-8 “Gecko” is NATO’s for the Soviet-built 9K33 Osa short-range system.
The resources also said that Israel believes Hezbollah has “doubled the number of air defense systems it owns in the last five years and that those defense systems are basically based on fashionable Iranian systems. “
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 that Hezbollah had managed to smuggle Pantsir-S1s into Lebanon “to shoot down our planes. “
Iran has also made no secret of its targeting of Syria’s air defenses.
“We will most likely see the source of Iran’s radars and missile defenses, such as the Khordad 15 system, in Syria’s air defenses,” Iranian state television reported in February, referring to some other long-range Iranian system.
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that devastated northwestern Syria in February, Iran took advantage of relief flights to smuggle military aircraft into the country. According to resources cited through Reuters, those materials included “advanced communications apparatus, radar batteries and spare parts for a planned upgrade of the Iranian-supplied Syrian air defense system. “
It is even possible that Iran is smuggling air defenses into Syria and its allies, piece by piece, to link them locally. It has used this style for other weapons, such as long-range armed drones and short-range ballistic missiles. , all of which are held by Hezbollah, the PMF and the Houthis in Yemen.
The statements by Hezbollah and the PMF are exaggerated or even an undeniable confusion on the part of the Americans who made them. On the other hand, they can be interpreted simply as a not-so-subtle warning to Israel not to underestimate the group’s capabilities. .