The footage released by Iran on June 30 local time showed that during the 12-day war, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Air Defense Force tracked and intercepted an Israeli drone. Obviously, with only the 358-type air defense loitering missiles and the Majid short-range air defense missile system, the Iranian Air Defense Force could not possibly shoot down Israeli Air Force F-35I, F-16I, and F-15I fighter jets. At this time, all of the Iranian Air Defense Forces' faith-373, S-300, Buk, and Tor air defense missile systems were missing. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard's air defense weapons are too primitive, without large radars, and their only optical equipment is limited to dealing with drones.
But if Iran had several fighter jets of similar level on patrol in the air, the difficulty for the Israeli Air Force to organize an aerial campaign would be doubled, and the Israeli Air Force would not be able to carry out such a brilliant operation. The disadvantage of Iran's pure ground-based air defense is that the Iranian Air Defense Forces have gone missing, stopped fighting, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's air defense forces are weak, leading to Iran being completely passive in the attack. The advantage of Iran having good fighter jets is that at the night before the war is said to be launched, the patrol aircraft can at least detect the air raid in advance.
The overall problem of Iran is not something that can be solved by having a few more advanced fighter jets or more patrol flights. The air superiority of stealth fighters over non-stealth fighters, Iran's domestic mobilization capability, long-range air defense missiles, command chain, data link, early warning system, etc., Iran is just a big loss but a small one. If Iran's air defense has no system, it's like giving away free vegetables. Iran is not short of money; if necessary, it can exchange oil for the J-10CE, which is not impossible.
Even with more money and more guns, without a strong organizational mobilization capability, everything is in vain. The current situation in Iran cannot be saved by buying a few J-10CEs and Su-35 fighter jets, after all, the Israeli Air Force's F-35I stealth fighter jets are not easy to deal with. A few days before the war, if the Iranian air defense forces had some Buk, S-300, and Faith-373 air defense missiles, they could conduct guerrilla warfare and ambushes against the Israeli Air Force, like the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Ukrainian Air Force, which could make the Israeli Air Force hesitate to deeply enter Iranian airspace for bombing.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1836384623703052/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.