It became known that the Secretary of the Security Council of russia Sergei Shoigu has recently visited Iran. It happened on the eve of a new escalation between Israel and Iran. It is known that Iran has promised to launch a decisive strike in response to the liquidation of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
He held a series of meetings with the President, the Secretary of the National Security Council, and the Chief of the General Staff of Iran. Officially, the main theme was "expanding bilateral partnership for global security and peace." At the same time, the russian federation called Iran "one of the key and strategic allies in the region".
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According to the New York Times, Iran has asked russia for modern air defense systems to prepare for a war with Israel. According to the information received from Iranian officials, russia responded positively to this request and has already begun deliveries.
As Defense Express, we note that Iran's need for air defense systems from russia is related to the fact that Israel has threatened to destroy all Iranian nuclear facilities. Although Iran has quite a powerful air defense:
- 4 battalions of S-300PMU2 system received from the russian federation in 2007;
- 3 battalions of S-200 system;
- an unknown number of Iranian Bavar-373 SAM systems that are allegedly similar to the S-300;
- an unknown number of Talash/15th Khordad SAM systems, allegedly with a range of 150 km;
- about 50 MIM-23 HAWK and Mersad systems;
- 29 Tor SAM systems received from the russian federation in 2005;
- 9 HQ-2 SAM systems, a Chinese copy of the S-75.
At the same time, this list reveals a rather serious flaw. The point is that Iran could have asked russia for only S-400 systems that according to the Kremlin's declarations, can shoot down ballistic missiles.
This is also evidenced by the fact that Iran was moving towards obtaining the S-400 systems from russia as early as March 2023. Although there was no information about any agreement. This can mean the lack or steady losses in these SAM systems, so Kremlin would hardly be interested in this. Although according to estimates, it would take two years for the Kremlin to supply Iran with these systems even after signing the agreement.
In addition to these SAM systems, crew is also needed. Therefore, the only option for the urgent transfer of S-400 air defense systems is to transfer them along with russian military personnel. At the same time, according to Israeli media reports, russia has already deployed powerful Murmansk-BN electronic warfare equipment and even Iskander ballistic missile systems to Iran. They are apparently also operated by russian military.
Thus, a possible Iran-Israel war would likely mean russia's direct participation in it.
Earlier Defense Express reported that russia had started using new Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.
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