In the wake of the Israeli airstrikes against Iran on Saturday, there has been increased focus on Iran’s air-defense systems. In general, even though Iran has a large number of air-defense systems, its air defenses have not been a strongpoint.
This is partly because Iran hasn’t faced a major conventional military threat for years, and it has been under sanctions. The last time Iran fought a conventional war and had to seriously defend its airspace was during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Therefore, Tehran has to make do with what it has and invest where it can in defenses. Iran boasts an impressive quantity of different systems. Whether they are effective is less clear.(Read More)