Iran has claimed for years that it had made great strides in electronic warfare (EW) with systems capable of detecting advanced threats through a web of mobile, ground-based and airborne systems. In the country's last five year plan, however EW modernization remained an important goal.
In the recent strikes around the Tehran refinery, we note that Iran still had an Avtobaza-M system deployed and at other places around Tehran. While we don't know whether it was operating or if Iran is having C3 issues, seeing a successful strike so close is notable.
The Avtobaza-M is a Russian SIGINT system designed to detect signal emissions between 200 MHz and 18 GHz to support air defense. The system shares data on target azimuth and elevation angle, radar type (pulse-Doppler and/or continuous wave) and emission waveform.
Up to 60 targets can be detected and processed by the system at any one time. Target detection is done using a rotating antenna making either six or twelve revolutions-per-minute with targets identified out at ranges of 81 nautical miles/nm (150 kilometres/km) to 108nm (200km).
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