Iran’s Mersad AA system isn’t enough…
The recent development of the Mersad anti-aircraft missile system shows Iranian focus on upgrading its own military assets, especially against a still-possible attack by US or Israeli bombers on its nuclear sites. Most of the Iranian AA batteries are made up of outdated models, uncapable of coping with modern fighter-bombers and their sophisticated electronic countermeasures. The Russian S-300PMU-2 would greatly upgrade the Iranian arsenal, but Moscow still refuses to send it to Teheran due to Western diplomatic pressure and a desire to keep the upper hand in the negotiations.
Iran is therefore forced to refit its existing assets, but the Mersad – which fires the Shahin missile, a modified HAWK – is hardly a valuable solution in dealing with modern air forces.
You can find my full analysis on this topic on Equilibri.net (in Italian):
Iran: perspectives on the anti-aircract defence system
