Iran’s indigenous air defense systems rapidly replaced during war: General

Iran’s Army Air Defense Force says damaged indigenous air defense systems were repaired and replaced in the shortest possible time throughout the recent US-Israeli war of aggression, rejecting “enemy claims” that the country’s air defense network had been destroyed.

Second Brigadier General Mohammad Sadeghian, deputy coordinator of the Army Air Defense Force, said the process of updating and replacing damaged systems began on the first day of the war rather than after it.

“The issue was not only addressed after the war, but was on the agenda from the very first day of the conflict. As soon as a system was damaged, it was overhauled and replaced in the shortest possible time,” Sadeghian told Defa Press.

He said Iran’s air defense force had successfully carried out its assigned missions during the two wars of aggression against the country, adding that any fair assessment should take into account the scale of attacks launched by the United States and Israel.

The United States and Israel launched unprovoked wars against the Islamic Republic on June 13 and February 28 that lasted 12 and 40 days, respectively. The Iranian Armed Forces managed to force the aggressors into asking for truce during both rounds of assaults.

“Confronting a weak country is one thing, but when the criminal United States and the Zionist regime, with such enormous military capabilities, attack a country, analyzing the defensive response requires years of study and teaching at universities and in books,” he said.

Sadeghian added that many countries claiming to possess advanced air defense capabilities would not have been able to withstand a similar assault.

“We stood firm until the very last moment and destroyed valuable targets,” he said, pointing out that in the final days of the war, Iranian forces struck aircraft whose destruction “has no precedent in the history of wars.”

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The Army

According to Sadeghian, the achievement was reached thanks to the coordinated performance of the Army, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and the country’s integrated air defense network.

He said previous military exercises had demonstrated the advantages of domestically produced air defense systems, noting that reliance on foreign-made equipment creates procurement challenges during times of crisis.

“Naturally, replacing, upgrading and troubleshooting these systems is far easier,” he said, arguing that the continued operational readiness of Iran’s air defenses disproves claims that they had been eliminated.

He added that following the ceasefire, Iranian air defense units remain capable of engaging “any hostile aircraft” approaching the country’s airspace or waters, including in the Strait of Hormuz, describing their continued operations as evidence that replacement of damaged equipment had been fully completed.

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