- A Serious Threat to the American Air Force

- By Allister Maunk, AIA - May 23, 2005

Iran mullahs a purchase of the Russian air-defense S-300 system, Iranian ambassador in Moscow said, sources in Tehran report. Ambassador Gholam Reza Shafei noted, that such a deal would be important for developing of the military-technological cooperation between the countries.

S-300PMU surface to air missile - NATO code named SA-10C Grumble (nick-named in Russia "Favorit"), is a new and highly capable version of the older long-range all-altitude SA-10, at least 2 or 3 of which Tehran purchased in the late eighties.

There were reports that as early as 1994 Iran ordered six SA-10 batteries [96 missiles] from Russia, but as of 2005 no deliveries had taken place. In February 1997 a $90 million sale of three older SA-10 SAM systems and 36 missiles to Iran, made up of components from Russia, Croatia, and Kazakhstan, was canceled. On 30 December 2000 Iranians asked Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev again to sell the S-300 anti-missile system. In March 2001 the first reports appeared that the Russians are close to sign a deal with Iran on advanced S-300PMU missiles. Later that year Pentagon officials quietly confirmed that Russia has sold S-300 missiles to Iran. According to defense intelligence officials, joint Russian / Iranian crews manned two S-300 units just outside of Tehran and Iranian soldiers undergo operational training on the advanced missile system in Russia. Now the rumors say that Iran is going to purchase at least 18 new systems.

The S-300 was originally designed in the sixties by the Soviet Almaz Scientific Production Association, to shoot down low-altitude targets, including cruise missiles and aircrafts. Even in the early days its phased-array fire control radar was capable of tracking up to six targets simultaneously, while its single-state, solid-fuel propelled missile sported aerodynamic control surfaces and thrust vectoring. The first S-300 missile had a range of 70 kilometers and could successfully engage its incoming targets 20-25 kilometers high. The very latest version of this missiles, the S-300PMU-2, which is larger, faster and more efficient has a radar range of 300 kilometers, with the ability to acquire and shot down targets flying as low as 15 meters.

The S-300PMU is considered the best Russian air defense missile available, easily surpassing the U.S. Army Patriot PAC-2, and it can destroy any current western fighter aircraft including B2 bomber.

Such kind of SAM systems constitutes a huge threat to the American Air Force in case of the military operation in Iran. Pentagon officials quietly assert that that America currently does not have the air power to counter the S-300 missile.

Jamestown defense analyst Richard Fisher noted that in 1999 U.S. defense officials feared that Serbia had obtained old S-300 missiles from Russia and might use them to ambush NATO fighter jets in SAM traps.

"If the Serbs had the S-300 it would have been a very different air war," Fisher stated.

"Over the Persian Gulf, the S-300 will significantly raise the cost of combat to opposing Arab air forces, and make future U.S. air operations far more difficult."

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