Iran claims to have jammed the radar emissions of a Western fighter

Iran claims it “some time ago” jammed the radar of a Western fighter jet. The fighter jet was near the borders of Iran and began gathering information by emitting radar waves. Brigadier General Amir Restegari, head of Iran Electronics Industries [IEI] said this, quoted by Military Watch Magazine. However, the Iranian general did not say the model of the fighter jet, nor the country that operates it.

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General Restegari says his office has a radio exchange between the pilot and his base saying “my systems encountered a problem, I’m returning.” According to the Iranian general, the incident happened again the next day. This time, however, two fighter jets flew towards Iran’s air border. Restegari says the radar emitters on both fighters were also jammed. “A jammer is working here” was the radio communication between the pilots and their base.

F-35 hunting

Iran’s electronic warfare capabilities remain unknown. There are claims that Tehran is investing heavily in developing its own Russian-based radars. According to these claims, the country’s anti-aircraft system is built on the basis of the Russian Rezonans-NE radar.

Rezonans-NE is believed by experts to be able to intercept and track the F-35. Of course, not everyone thinks this way, so it’s hard to take this radar’s capabilities for granted. In 2020, director of the Rezonans research center Alexander Stuchilin said that the F-35 was intercepted and tracked by Rezonans-NE.

Although General Restegari did not mention the F-35 fighter in the case he cited, but he claimed that Iran already had the “radar fingerprints” of the stealth fighter. “The enemy’s electronic equipment is detectable,” Restegari said of the F-35, claiming Iran has made progress in developing the technology.

Restegari says the F-35 emits radio waves radically different from other fighter jets. It is these radio waves that are capable of being identified as F-35 radio waves. In this way, Iran can not only identify the plane, but also detect it.

Israel claims that last year, during a regular Israeli Air Force exercise, an F-35 Adir fighter jet entered Iranian airspace. The plane was not noticed by the Iranian air defense at all and collected the necessary intelligence information. Tel Aviv says this is not the first entry of the F-35 into Iran.

The Su-35′ role

Most likely, Iran will take a different approach to opposing aircraft. And in this way, the main participation will be the acquisition of the Russian Su-35. We know that the first Russian fighter with an AESA radar is the Su-57. However, Iran’s Su-35s are said to part with the Ibris-E PESA radar and get the Su-57’s N036 Belka radar. In this way, the Iranian Su-35 will have two L-bands.

Dual L-band AESA radar will increase situational awareness. If Tehran decides to buy the S-400 air defense systems, as some experts believe it will, it is expected to build network connectivity between ground and air platforms. However, such a purchase may not materialize. We recall that Iran presented at the end of last year an updated version of its Bavar-373 air defense system. According to sources, it is an updated version of the Russian S-400, although others claim that it is an upgrade of the S-300.

Bavar-373 air defense

Claims in the Iranian press say that the Bavar-373’s X-band radar can intercept air targets with a radar cross-section of 1.64 square meters. It is also claimed to be able to intercept the F-35 at a distance of 90 km. However, these capabilities are disputed by Western experts.

Iran’s air defense consists of several radar stations. At their configuration base is the Qadir early warning radar, which has a range of 1,100 km. According to reports, this radar can track targets at a distance of 300 km. As for anti-aircraft systems, in addition to domestic production, Iran is equipped with some of the most advanced and upgraded Soviet S-300 systems.

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