Israel “crushed” Iran's anti-stealth radar in the first hour
During Israel's Operation Rising Lion, F-35 fighter jets smashed Iran's anti-stealth radar into dust in the first hours of the war.
Báo Khoa học và Đời sống•07/07/2025
Iran has purchased a large number of Russian electronic warfare systems, radars and air defense missiles. But the short war with Israel has shown that they have not been used to their full potential. It is believed that what Russia has supplied Iran are exported versions of electronic warfare systems and radars with many features cut down. Most of the weapons exporting countries in the world have their export versions cut down on features to prevent technological secrets from falling into the hands of the enemy. However, there are still some exceptions.
Currently, the Russian radars and air defense missiles that Iran can buy are most likely versions intended for the export market. However, the failure of Iran's air defense in Operation "Rising Lion" was not only because Russian weapons were not good. Iran is equipped with the Nebo-SVU radar, the world's first solid-state active digital phased array meter wave radar, produced for the Russian Air Defense Forces. It was developed by the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Radio Engineering (NNIIRT) and can detect targets up to 380 km away. Iran has also copied a large number of Russian Sky-M radars. Iran's L-ASR4 uses an electromechanical hybrid phased array radar and they have at least 20 large radar stations, located throughout the entire western border area. Furthermore, Iran is also equipped with Russia's Krasukha-4 ground-based electronic warfare system. Iran also purchased the Russian Rezonans-N radar in 2020. This is a strategic long-range air defense early warning radar, capable of detecting targets below the horizon, using the ionospheric refraction method, and capable of detecting targets above the horizon. Rezonans-N can detect and find flying targets within a range of 600 km. Operating in the meter wave range, it can detect stealth fighters. Moreover, this large Russian radar has actually detected and locked onto the US F-35 stealth fighter.
In August 2020, Alexander Stuchlin, Deputy CEO of Russia's Rezonans Research Center, revealed: "In early 2020, radars identified and tracked US F-35 fighters. Russian radar operators transmitted clear information, including the flight path of the F-35s, thereby confirming that they could reliably track these aircraft." In fact, Iran has formed a high-density anti-stealth radar system, forming a relatively extensive air defense network with medium- and long-range air defense missile systems as the core. Concentrated in the western and southern regions of Iran, where there is a high possibility of penetration. However, the Israeli Air Force's F-35 stealth fighter completely defeated Iran's anti-stealth radar system on the first day, and all anti-stealth radar stations were accurately destroyed. This time, Iran lost like India, because they lacked the combat capability of the system. Iran deploys Iranian-made radar, Russian radar, old American and British air defense missiles, new Iran-made air defense missiles and Russian electronic warfare systems… working together. The bottom line is that these weapons have no information warfare systems to connect to each other, no high-speed data links to transmit information, and no automated coordinated warfare systems.
Russia's meter wave radar can indeed detect stealth fighters, and there is no deception on this point. However, meter wave radar cannot lock onto the exact location of the stealth fighter and can only report an approximate area.
Iran also needs an infrared detection system, an electro-optical detection system, and a more advanced radar system to set up a triangulation configuration and a multi-directional synthetic stealth fighter detection system, to accurately lock on to the F-35 stealth fighter and attack it.
Moreover, Iran's air defense radar system has been fixed for a long time and lacks convenient patrols and warnings. At the same time as the war broke out, Israeli special forces infiltrated Iran and used Spike anti-tank missiles at close range to destroy Iran's anti-stealth radar, causing a huge gap in Iran's air defense channel. (Photo source: IRNA, Al Jazeera, TASS).
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