Iran provides Syria with the Khordad air system for the first time aiming to stand against the constant Israeli raids
The official Iranian News Agency IRNA announced that Iran had reached an agreement to provide the Syrian army with Khordad 15 air defense missiles to counter the continuous Israeli attacks.
According to the Iranian News Agency, “the successive attacks by the Zionist regime’s bombers and the failure of the Russian S300 and S400 defense systems stationed in Syria to deal with them prompted the Syrian military authorities to purchase the Iranian air defense Khordad 15 system”.
The agreement was reached during the recent visit by the leaders of the Syrian Air Force to Iran and their meeting with the Iranian Minister of Defense and senior military commanders, which came after the Israeli attacks on the morning of February 19.
The talk revolves around a deal signed in Tehran, which includes 3 phases:
The first and second phases related to the places of deployment of the system and the provision of infrastructure for it in Syria, as well as training the Syrians on how to use and manage it, have been implemented so far.
What remains, which was agreed upon last Saturday, is to deliver the systems to Damascus and install them.
The installation of advanced anti-aircraft missiles outside Iranian territory for the first time and on the borders of Israel comes in light of the decline in diplomacy and negotiation and the dominance of the idea of confrontation in everything related to Iran and its nuclear and ballistic missiles program issues, and what it considers areas of influence.
In comparison with the Russian defense systems available in the Syrian army, the Iranian Khordad 15 system is accurate and advanced and competes with similar systems in various countries of the world, as the Islamic Republic has developed its military capabilities, especially in the field of air defense in recent years significantly.
Analysts believes that there is a need for a difference or preference between the Russian systems stable in Syria and their Iranian counterpart.
In this regard, the analysts believes that Israel may have targeted areas of Syrian territory that weren’t covered by the Russian system in Syria, and that it didn’t face any Syrian response.
The former Iranian diplomat, Abu al Qasim Delfi, says that the Russian defense system in Syria doesn’t meet the latter’s needs, or it is possible that Moscow didn’t allow Damascus to use all the capabilities of the system to counter Israeli attacks, referring to concessions that Moscow made to the West for its return to the Middle East through its presence in Syria.
As for the ability of Khordad 15 system to confront the repeated Israeli raids, Iran’s provision of this system to Syria comes in the context of strategic cooperation between them, stressing that Iran’s defense systems are advanced.
On the other hand, after Israel announced that it would provide Ukraine with the Iron Dome air defense system in exchange for Russian drones, there’s a possible agreement between Iran and Russia regarding sending the Khordad 15 air defense system to Syria.
The Iranian diplomat, Abu al Qasim Delfi, distances the Iranian-Russian cooperation from Iran’s calculations with the East and its relations with Russia and even China.
The Khordad 15 system is one of the Iranian missile defense systems that was unveiled on June 9, 2019, and tested on November 22, 2019.
This system can identify various targets, including warplanes and drones, within a range of 150 km, and it can track them at a range of 120 km using the local detectors provided with it.
The system can also detect targets such as stealth aircraft within a range of 85 km and hit them at a range of 45 km.
It can drop targets at a maximum height of 27 kilometers and within a range of 75 and 120 kilometers, and it uses 3 launchers, each with a capacity of 4 Iranian Sayyad 2 (Hunter) and Sayyad 3 (Hunter) missiles.
It can also load and use two different types of missiles with different ranges, capable of intercepting 6 targets simultaneously.
