Iran has taken possession of Chinese surface-to-air missile batteries as Tehran rapidly moves to rebuild defensives destroyed by Israel during their recent 12-day conflict, sources have told Middle East Eye.
The deliveries of Chinese surface-to-air missile batteries occurred after a de-facto truce was struck between Iran and Israel on 24 June, an Arab official familiar with the intelligence told MEE.
Another Arab official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence, said that the US’s Arab allies were aware of Tehran’s efforts to “back up and reinforce” its air defences and that the White House had been informed of Iran’s progress.
The officials did not say how many surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs, Iran had received from China since the end of the fighting. However, one of the Arab officials said that Iran was paying for the SAMs with oil shipments.
I mean they theoretically can but they’d have to hide one under like a false rock, keep the radar off until they somehow know an F-35 is very close, flick it on and then hope that’s close enough for a track and launch.
Israel has huge intel on where their SAM sites are located in real time, so this already makes it near impossible.
A better solution would be a fully integrated radar system with a modern airforce to run and protect it, but that’s expensive and would require years of buildup.
Then you could use some stacked radar tricks to identify F-35s from further out, and use data link to avoid alerting them on RWR. It would still be hard just due to the low RCS so any non stealth fighters would likely be prime targets as the F-35s slip by.