Iran has taken possession of Chinese surface-to-air missile batteries as Tehran rapidly moves to rebuild defensives destroyed by Israel during their recent 12-day conflict, sources have told Middle East Eye.

The deliveries of Chinese surface-to-air missile batteries occurred after a de-facto truce was struck between Iran and Israel on 24 June, an Arab official familiar with the intelligence told MEE.

Another Arab official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence, said that the US’s Arab allies were aware of Tehran’s efforts to “back up and reinforce” its air defences and that the White House had been informed of Iran’s progress.

The officials did not say how many surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs, Iran had received from China since the end of the fighting. However, one of the Arab officials said that Iran was paying for the SAMs with oil shipments.

  • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    41
    ·
    3 days ago

    yeah nobody over there is naive enough to think israel and the us won’t attack again.

    • Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      Yet another China W. Iran is problematic for materially supporting Putin’s war of territorial expansion, but as the sole country willing to go against Israel in the middle-east (besides the Houthi’s) I strongly support Iran being able to rebuild it’s military strength.

      Probably a diplomatic win too, other than with America but diplomacy don’t mean jack with that guy.

      • IttihadChe@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        21 hours ago

        It’s material support for a country under attack from the west and their genocidal puppet, when they could have just as easily refused them.

        Idk why y’all never want to give China props unless they’re doing Trotskyist permanent revolution or whatever.

          • IttihadChe@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            17 hours ago

            You saw a report from SCMP on a different report from an Israeli Newspaper, in which the Chinese embassy within Israel denies the prior reporting with the statements

            “The embassy finds the contents of the report to be incorrect. As a matter of principle, China firmly opposes the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems, and continuously strengthens its enforcement capabilities regarding non-proliferation.”

            The embassy further stressed that “China never exports weapons to countries engaged in warfare and maintains strict controls on the export of dual-use items. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China upholds a cautious and responsible approach to the export of military-related goods.”

            Why is the reporting of Miriam Adelsons Israeli Newspaper more trustworthy to you than Middle East Eye?

      • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        29
        ·
        edit-2
        3 days ago

        Russia was refusing to sell Iran anti air defense systems and fighter jets. Iran was trying for quite a while to get their hands on the S400 anti air missiles. Russia was gladly offering them to India and Turkey but didn’t want to sell them to Iran.

    • mlg@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 day ago

      I mean they theoretically can but they’d have to hide one under like a false rock, keep the radar off until they somehow know an F-35 is very close, flick it on and then hope that’s close enough for a track and launch.

      Israel has huge intel on where their SAM sites are located in real time, so this already makes it near impossible.

      A better solution would be a fully integrated radar system with a modern airforce to run and protect it, but that’s expensive and would require years of buildup.

      Then you could use some stacked radar tricks to identify F-35s from further out, and use data link to avoid alerting them on RWR. It would still be hard just due to the low RCS so any non stealth fighters would likely be prime targets as the F-35s slip by.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Nobody really knows what Chinese tech can do because China does not participate in war.

      The only thing we really know is that the Pakistani Chinese made fighter jets shot down a bunch of French Rafale jets when India attacked Pakistan recently. Though the Indian Rafale’s are fourth generation jets not 5th.

      If China sent their top end SAMs then I have no doubt it could shoot down F35’s. Though they probably didn’t do that.

      • burlemarx@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        22 hours ago

        https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/china-rebuilding-iran-air-defence-hq9b

        Iran would actually need airborn early warning and control (AEW&C) to effectively defeat F-35 fighters with anti-air defenses. But if Iran were to deploy a few J-10C that were used by Pakistan, they would at least put an obstacle in acquiring air superiority in Iranian territory, since the jets would not be able to maneuver freely in Iranian territory.

        Let’s keep in mind that J-10Cs are 4th gen as well. But I think Iran would be able to replace their old fleet with newer J-10Cs as quickly as Pakistan did with their older jets.

        • IttihadChe@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          22 hours ago

          If they’ve already shot down F-35s with inferior/older equipment doesn’t that show that they already have the systems capable of effectively defeating F-35s?

          The only thing I see in that article is that it wouldn’t be as effective as it could be due to their lack of their own fighters and an AEW&C, not that it wouldn’t be effective.

          • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            21 hours ago

            No confirmations of downed F35’s were made after the war. Several Israeli $30m Hermes 900 drones smaller ones were downed which might have been translated to plane and then misreported as f35’s.

          • burlemarx@lemmygrad.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            22 hours ago

            Yep, they would need both fighters and AEW&C to make AEW&C effective. But if they at least have more modern jets, deploy their anti-air defenses strategically and use radar tricks to hit F-35 then they would be able to tick the scales a bit. But this depends on how much Iranian air forces are used to these tactics and are used to the more modern equipment.