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[email protected] Web version: The Gulf and the Challenge www.csis.org/burke/reports of Missile Defense Working draft, Please send comments Net Assessment Indicators and suggested additions to
[email protected] Anthony H. Cordesman
[email protected] February 26, 2019 Burke Chair Photo: ARASH KHAMOUSHI/AFP/ Getty Images In Strategy Iran and the Need for Missile Defense in the Gulf: Key Net Assessment Indicators Anthony H. Cordesman U.S. defense planners have been examining the need to create effective missile defenses in the Gulf since at least Iraq’s first use of ballistic missiles against Iran during the Iran-Iraq War in the mid-1980s. Actual progress, however, has been slow and has taken place on a country-by-country basis rather than a part of an integrated effort to create effective regional defenses. Israel has developed effective layered missile and rocket defenses for itself, but the defenses of our Arab strategic partners consist largely of limited coverage by dual capable Patriot missile and air defense systems and surface-to-air missiles that provide some coverage against cruises missiles, UCAVs, and drones. Meanwhile, Iraq, Oman, and Bahrain do not have a Patriot missile system. The United States has deployed Aegis cruisers in the past on a contingency basis and has now deployed THAAD missile defenses to the region. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have also bought THADD systems. As yet, however, there are no clear plans to provide an integrated missile defense system for the region, and the deep divisions between Arab strategic partners make it impossible to develop even integrated air defenses.