Iran Tests Air Defenses That Can Track Aircraft Flying Out of US Mideast Bases

Earlier this year, Iran’s Noor-2 surveillance satellite surprised the Pentagon by taking a high-resolution satellite snap of the United States Fifth Fleet’s headquarters in Manama, Bahrain. Two years earlier, the Noor-1 released detailed images of Al-Udeid Air Base – the Qatar-based home of the US Central Command.

Iranian defense engineers are working to increase the range of the Bavar-373 long-range road-mobile surface-to-air missile system to 300 km – enough to blanket most major US military bases in the immediate vicinity of the Islamic Republic, a senior commander has announced.

“Today, we have created the necessary air defense coverage at all levels and layers, and in the area of high altitude, have been able to test the Bavar-373 system at a range of 200 km. We have also started the testing of this system at a range of 300 km,” Iran Air Defense Force commander Brig. Gen. Amir Alireza Sabahifard said in a speech Sunday.

Sabahifard assured that the Iranian military knows what’s going on at “enemy” bases in the region using its network of advanced homegrown radars. “We are monitoring the enemies at their bases. The range of our radars is thousands of kilometers,” the commander boasted. In addition to radar, the country’s Air Defense Force troops have modern aerial, intelligence, interception and combat equipment, he added.

“In past years, we faced limitations of weapons and systems, using systems from the Era of Sacred Defense,” Sabahifard said, referring to the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. “But today, we are holding exercises using the best domestic equipment on the cutting edge of global [military] technology. And our enemies know that today we are the absolute defense power in the region,” he said.

Iran began development of the Bavar-373 missile system in 2010, immediately after then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev froze the export of S-300PMU-1 air defense systems to the country, citing United Nations sanctions. The S-300s were eventually delivered in 2015 and 2016. The Bavar-373 was first unveiled at a ceremony in mid-2016, and introduced into service in 2019. An export version was presented at a military exhibition in Doha this past March.

Like the S-300, the Bavar-373 uses a phased array radar to track aerial targets and ballistic missiles at medium and long ranges. Iran’s military says the system can detect aerial targets at ranges of 300+ km, lock on at 250 km, and destroy them at a range of 200 km, and an altitude of up to 30 km. The system’s phased array tracking radar is complemented by active electronically scanned array (AESA) S-band/X-band acquisition and targeting radars. The base system can track 60 targets at once and engage six of them simultaneously. The Bavar-373 is also upgradable, with Iranian media reporting in 2016 that the system is compatible with a long-range phased array radar known as Me’raj-4, which can spot aerial objects and projectiles at a range of up to 450 km and track as many as 200 of them simultaneously.

Iran enjoys some of the densest and most sophisticated air defenses in the Middle East, with its range of ultra-long, long, medium and short-range stationary and mobile radar systems complemented by several layers of mobile and stationary surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems including the Khordad 3 – a medium-range system which shot down a $220 million US spy drone over the Strait of Hormuz in 2019.

The United States operates nearly two dozen military bases directly adjacent to Iran, with troops stationed in Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. US Naval Forces Central Command – the combatant command responsible for US operations in the Middle East, operates out of Naval Support Activity Bahrain, a base containing about 9,000 US military personnel and civilian contractors. That base is situated less than 250 km from Iran across the Persian Gulf. The Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar is home to CENTCOM’s forward HQ, with over 11,000 troops and contractors situated there, including more than 100 aircraft. It’s located about 270 km from Iran’s coast.