Iran Seeks Russia’s Advanced Radar to Confront US F-35 Fighters

 The crew of an F-35 fighter moments after it arrived at al-Dhafra base in the UAE in 2019 (Central Command)
The crew of an F-35 fighter moments after it arrived at al-Dhafra base in the UAE in 2019 (Central Command)
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Iran Seeks Russia’s Advanced Radar to Confront US F-35 Fighters

 The crew of an F-35 fighter moments after it arrived at al-Dhafra base in the UAE in 2019 (Central Command)
The crew of an F-35 fighter moments after it arrived at al-Dhafra base in the UAE in 2019 (Central Command)

Iran has been in a race against time to obtain advanced Russian-manufactured radar systems to challenge the United States-made F-35 fighter jets.

Russia and China have recently opposed a US attempt in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to extend an arms embargo on Iran which is due to expire in October.

The US argues that it can trigger the process - known as snapback - because a 2015 Security Council resolution that enshrines the nuclear deal still names it as a participant.

Thirteen council members expressed their opposition, arguing that Washington’s move is void given that it is using a process agreed under a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that it quit two years ago.

Few days before triggering the process, Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami said upon his arrival in Moscow that talks with officials will mainly focus on cooperation in the fields of advanced military technology.

Russian sources have recently said that a Russian-made Rezonans-NE radar system, which Iran purchased to identify and track stealth aircraft and hypersonic targets, successfully spotted and tracked US F-35 fighters near the country’s borders during an aggravation of tensions in early 2020, following the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

Rezonans-NE radar had been on round-the-clock combat duty in Iran for several years, TASS quoted deputy CEO of Rezonans Research Center Alexander Stuchilin.

“The radar’s personnel were transmitting information, including the routes of F-35 flights, in clear, thus confirming that it was reliably tracking the planes. For this reason, the opponent did not commit any irreparable actions that might have caused a big war,” Stuchilin said on the sidelines of the international military-technical forum Army-2020.

The Russian official’s statements contradict with doubts over the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) ability to control the radar system.

This comes in light of its announcement that targeting the civilian passenger plane during its ballistic attack on Iraqi bases housing US forces was due to a radar error.

Iran retracted 72 hours later from the first official story, about the crash of a Ukrainian airliner, and the killing of 176 people on board.

In the first press conference following the incident, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, said his country’s air defense systems were put on the “highest level of readiness” and alerted to a possible cruise missile attack prior to the plane crash incident.

He added that the operator then identified what his air defense system had detected as an incoming cruise missile 19 kilometers away.

However, Tehran Military Prosecutor Gholam Abbas Torki said the shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner in Iran was due to human error.

“The portable system which fired the missile did not accurately determine the real north after rebooting, and this huge mistake caused the operator of the air defense system to see the plane on its radar as a target that is approaching Tehran from the northwestern region,” he said.

The Iranian operator was reported to have mistaken the Boeing jetliner for a cruise missile.

The Russian official’s defense of the effectiveness of the radar systems in Iran seems to be aimed at luring other countries to buy Russian systems, which are finding fierce competition with the Patriot system.



Israel Killed 30 Iranian Security Chiefs and 11 Nuclear Scientists, Israeli Official Says

A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Israel Killed 30 Iranian Security Chiefs and 11 Nuclear Scientists, Israeli Official Says

A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Israel killed more than 30 senior security officials and 11 senior nuclear scientists to deliver a major blow to Iran's nuclear ambitions, a senior Israeli military official said on Friday in summarizing Israel's 12-day air war with Iran.

In the United States, an independent expert said a review of commercial satellite imagery showed only a small number of the approximately 30 Iranian missiles that penetrated Israel's air defenses managed to hit any militarily significant targets.

"Iran has yet to produce missiles that demonstrate great accuracy," Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at the CNA Corporation specializing in satellite imagery, told Reuters.

In Israel, the senior military official said Israel's June 13 opening strike on Iran severely damaged its aerial defenses and destabilized its ability to respond in the critical early hours of the conflict.

Israel's air force struck over 900 targets and the military deeply damaged Iran's missile production during the war that ended with a US-brokered ceasefire, the official said.

"The Iranian nuclear project suffered a major blow: The regime's ability to enrich uranium to 90% was neutralized for a prolonged period. Its current ability to produce a nuclear weapon core has been neutralized," the official said.

Iran, which denies trying to build nuclear weapons, retaliated against the strikes with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites and cities. Iran said it forced the end of the war by penetrating Israeli defenses.

Iranian authorities said 627 people were killed in Iran, where the extent of the damage could not be independently confirmed because of tight restrictions on the media. Israeli authorities said 28 people were killed in Israel.

Eveleth, the independent US expert, said Iran's missile forces were not accurate enough to destroy small military targets like US-made F-35 jet fighters in their shelters.

"Because of this the only targets they can hit with regularity are large cities or industrial targets like the refinery at Haifa," he told Reuters.

Iranian missile salvos, which were limited by Israeli airstrikes in Iran, did not have the density to achieve high rates of destruction, he wrote on X.

"At the current level of performance, there is effectively nothing stopping Israel from conducting the same operation in the future with similar results," he wrote.

In a statement on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had directed the military to draft plans to safeguard air superiority over Iran, prevent nuclear development and missile production, and address Iran's support for militant operations against Israel.

Israel's military Chief of Staff Lieutenant General, Eyal Zamir, said on Friday the outcome in Iran could help advance Israeli objectives against the Iranian-backed Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip.

Zamir told troops in Gaza an Israeli ground operation, known as "Gideon's Chariots," would in the near future achieve its goal of greater control of the Palestinian enclave and present options to Israel's government for further action.