Dave Majumdar, Daily Beast: Putin’s Missile Could Make U.S. Attacks on Iran Nearly Impossible
For years, Team Obama crowed about keeping this advanced Russian missile out of Iran’s hands. Now the Kremlin suddenly seems eager to hand it over to Tehran.
This nuke deal with Iran had better work. Because the Kremlin is lifting a ban on selling a powerful air defense system to Iran that would render an airstrike on Tehran’s nuclear weapons facilities nearly impossible.
The delivery of the new weapon, called the Almaz-Antei S-300PMU-1—known as the SA-20 Gargoyle in NATO parlance—would effectively force the U.S. to rely on its small fleet of stealth aircraft to strike targets inside Iran in case the mullahs make a dash for the bomb. But even those aircraft might have a difficult time.
WNU Editor: On the political front, this decision by Russia to ship these weapon systems to Iran has to put bed any hope that the U.S. and Russia would continue to cooperate in reigning in Iran's nuclear program. Both countries are now approaching Iran from a different "play-book", and it would not surprise me if we are start seeing Iran take advantage of this. On the military front .... the S-300 is not as advanced as the S-400 and the soon to be deployed S-500 .... but it does change the dynamics on what would be necessary to successfully strike Iran's nuclear facilities. My guess is that from now to the day when these weapons systems are finally shipped and deployed, the military option for a country like Israel will be very tempting .... but after that .... it will take advanced stealth U.S. jet fighters and cruise missiles to do the job.
Update: Another red line crossed? .... Russian Missile Sales to Iran Cross White House ‘Red Line’ (Washington Free Beacon).
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