Compared to the US invasion of Iraq, how are Iranian air defense systems & would they pose a serious problem..

Question

to US air power if Bush were to attack Iran?

Answer 1

At the time of the invasion of Iraq, they had the most advanced air defence systems in the world and a respectable Air Force as well, including many 4th generation fighters such as the Mig-29. They had the 3rd largest and most combat-experienced military on Earth. We exterminated their entire force in 100 hours.

The Iranian Air Force is almost non-existant. A lot of their aircraft were Iraqi - the aircraft the fled and survived. But without spare parts or trained ground crews, they're not very useful. The remaining aircraft are mostly old Vietnam era US Aircraft such as Phantoms and Tomcats, though there's a lot of doubt about whether the Toms can still fly at all, much less fly. They are also without any real trained pilots - which is what makes the difference in combat (A good pilot in an older aircraft can shoot down a poor pilot in a newer one, in general)

I've attached a good link on sizing up the Iranian Military that should answer your questions.

Bottom line? Their most powerful force is their Navy's littoral capabilities and their Anti-Ship Missiles and mines attempting to close the Straits of Hormuz and interdict oil shipments out of the Gulf. The US Navy would make short work of that, but it'd be messy for a bit.

They DID just buy some Soviet SAM systems, including the TOR-1 (SA-15 or SA-N-9) which is a fairly nasty close-in SAM system, but not quite the equal of the USAF. Mostly these would be exterminated before they ever fired by Standard ARMs or HARMs.

Orion

Answer 2

they just recieved a brand new russian air defense system roughly equal to the Patriot. this could prove quite the headache but the biggest headache is the bunkers themselves they were designed to withstand the latest generation of bunkerbusters and there great size means that the busters will do only minor damage at best. The real threat to the us will be the Iranian response in the form of cruise and ballistic missiles some of these are the latest generation of chinese missiles they will most certianly be used against the oil refineries so even if we hurt Iran they will hurt us more by starving the world of oil over the span of several years the projected time to rebuild an oil refinery.

Answer 3

...a suspension of a program is not the elimination of a program. They still have it. They may not actively be involved in it, but considering what we know, it would be pointless for them to. N Korea will have already told them what level of enrichment they need the uranium to be, so until they have what they need, there is no point for them to continue the program. In the mean time, they will use the time to secure their own defenses. It's the smart thing to do. Meanwhile, back in the States, the media and politicians are playing up the anti-Bush positions which will enable Iran to look like an innocent victem. Bush made a valid point that nobody followed up on. They uncovered the nuclear weapons program, Iran did not declare it had one. There is a group (although listed on the terrorist group listing) claiming that Iran had stopped it, relocated it and resumed. Yahoo had an article on it several weeks ago.

Answer 4

Iraq and Iranian systems are very similar but not exactly similar (different operating systems). The Iranian air defense system would be useless against the US's sophisticated targeting system. If the Iranian air defense system would shoot anything down it would be on luck and not on skill. They do have a decent ground-to-ground missile system. But not very many Ground-to-air missiles that would be effective.

Answer 5

Irans threat in defense of being attcked by US and Israel is nto in how much damage they can do to US it is in the damge they can inflict upon Europpes Caspain sea energy fields and pipelines.
It is also to Kuwait and Saudi joint oil fields.
All can be hit with their shorter range missles.
Yes the US airfoce should have a better shooting gallery than they had in Iraq, more and easier targets and as one mentioned above Iraquis have old planes, mowt radqar is outdated and would be easily eliiminated if used as Iraq tried to do but it won't be as it will be used more along the lines of N. Korean tactical defensive strategy as will their planes.
Iraquis are not going to line up like penguins on a skating rink just so we can kill them as in the latest war games and the ones just last year even teh US military was disquietd by how rapidly iranians in their war games had given small unit flexability to their field commanders including their naval forces.
the US infantry man had better be well stocked if US does happen to invade as it has been estimated that for every Iraqui we have killed we have expended more than 1 million small arms rounds and even with our body armor almost inpentrable to thier older AK rounds ther may be real military shooting at them in Iran not some rag tag guerilla groups.
You want to see hw Iran will fight lok up the N> Korean strategy.
If you think our airforce boys are good remember over thirrty times in last tow years our f-16s have found korean jets on their tails bfore their systems warned them of it.
A full blown war is what US wants and the kiddies can play mind games maybe you will get lucky and get it soon.

Answer 6

As far as I know, Iranian air defense systems are much more advanced then Iraq's.

Answer 7

It is not a problem. I don't believe they have any defence against ICBM's which is how I think we should attack them. I wouldn't risk a single U.S. casualty to spare Iranians casualities.

Against intercontinental ballastic missles they are completely defensless. They should be aware of that. If not, we should make them aware of that, and soon. Perhaps an demonstration by targeting their nuke facilities would be convincing enough.

Answer 8

minor threat

One would expect their air force and air defense units to be destroyed in the first day or 2 of any serious conflict.

Answer 9

The same Soviet built systems. The stealth planes can easily take them out.

Answer 10

I hope we dont have to find out