By Al-Fassel | 2024-11-04

Israel's October 26 strikes on the Iranian regime's military sites destroyed its Russia-made S-300 air defense systems, in the latest sign that Russian military equipment, vaunted in arms shows, performs poorly in real life.

The strikes, carried out in retaliation for an October 1 Iranian attack, "hit Iran's defense capabilities and missile production," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Israeli aerial defense systems downed most Iranian missiles on October 1.

Iran's defenses were less successful in fending off the October 26 retaliation.

Iran's Russian-made air-defense equipment stopped few, if any, of the missiles fired by 100 Israeli jet fighters, US and Israeli officials told the Wall Street Journal.

Iran's three Russian S-300 air-defense systems were destroyed.

Israel earlier this year hit Iran's only other S-300.

The Israeli show of force has left Iran more vulnerable, said International Crisis Group Middle East program director Joost Hiltermann.

"The importance of attacking Iran's air defenses is that in a next round Iran would be largely undefended," he told AFP.

The S-300 can be a significant threat, especially if used as part of a layered air defense system, per The War Zone.

Iran had the S-300PMU-2 Favorit -- one of the more modern iterations, introduced in 1997. The most modern S-300s have a range of 350km, according to Russian state media.

Israel's strikes come as Ukrainian forces fighting against Russia have carried out similar attacks on Russian air defense systems. Kyiv has hit more advanced S-400 air defense systems, including in May and August, the Journal reported.

Moscow's allies, including China and Belarus, and its biggest arms customers, including India, Vietnam and Algeria, use both the S-300 and S-400.

Lost faith

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has lost more than 9,000 tanks, 18,000 armored combat vehicles, 19,900 artillery systems and 369 aircraft, according to the Ukrainian general staff.

The invasion "has been a public-relations disaster for [Russia's] defense industry," Ian Storey, a senior fellow at Singapore think tank ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute told the Journal.

"Russia's traditional customers have lost faith in the country's defense industry and are looking for new suppliers," he said.

Russia's arms exports have dropped significantly since February 2022, as Moscow uses every piece of equipment it can produce.

Exports fell 52% last year from 2022, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), based on its own calculations of export values.

A low volume of outstanding orders "suggests that Russian arms exports are likely to remain well below the level reached in 2014-18, for at least the short term," said a SIPRI report published in March.