Tuesday, June 17, 2008

War Threats & Sale of S-300 to Iran

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that recent comments by Israeli officials regarding imminent Israeli military strike against Iran has encouraged Russia to complete the sale of its advanced multi-target anti-aircraft missile systems, the S-300, to Iran earlier than expected. The S-300 has the capability of tracking up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at the same time. Israel has been working through diplomatic channels to prevent the sale and delivery of the systems to Iran.

On Sunday former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh said he believed Israel would, in the end, need to attack Iran. Earlier this month, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said that if Iran continued its nuclear program “we will attack it.”

Iran has been holding talks with Russia in recent years to purchase the S-300 systems. Israel believes that while Iran has not yet obtained the system, Iranians are already studying and training with it in Russia.

Iran recently received SA-15 air defense systems from Russia. The SA-15 can reportedly identify over 40 targets and fire at two targets simultaneously at a height of up to 6,000 meters.

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