Last week, the Kremlin announced that Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree banning delivery of its advanced S-300 air defense system to Iran. For years, Iran watchers have followed Russia’s 2007 contract to deliver the system to Iran closely, given the S-300’s potential to upend the regional status quo. The highly capable system can defend sites against attack by a range of platforms, including aircraft and ballistic missiles.
Iran’s possession of such a system would represent a significant upgrade of its current air defenses, which currently includes some antiquated Shah-era U.S. systems. Experts have been concerned that a Russian fulfillment of the contract might cause Israel to strike preemptively, given that nuclear facilities protected by the S-300 system would be much more difficult to attack. In addition, S-300 batteries at some sites – Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr basically sits on the shoreline of the Persian Gulf – could be used to threaten U.S. aircrafts operating outside of Iranian airspace.
