Russia is providing Iran with intelligence to strike American military targets in the Middle East, it has been reported.
Moscow began to pass the Islamic Republic information on the positions of US forces as soon as the war began on Saturday, The Washington Post reported, citing three US officials familiar with the matter.
The information allowed “sophisticated” attacks by Iranian missiles and drones against US radar facilities, warships and aircraft. It also made it possible to target temporary structures not possible to spot with Iran’s own satellites, including the facility in Kuwait where six US soldiers were killed.
The report, which The Telegraph has not been able to independently confirm, marks the first sign of Russia’s active participation in the expanding conflict.
One official said: “It does seem like it’s a fairly comprehensive effort.”
Vladimir Putin has long objected to the US providing satellite intelligence to the Ukrainian military, and now appears to be responding in kind.
While Iran has only a small number of military-grade satellites, Moscow has many and has honed its capabilities in its war with Ukraine.
“The Russians are more than aware of the assistance that we’re giving the Ukrainians,” a US official told the Post. “I think they were very happy to try to get some payback.”
“Much [of Russia’s support to Iran] will be space-based imagery,” said Mike Petersen, principal research scientist at the Centre for Naval Analyses, a federally funded organisation tied to the US military.
“This is good for knowing what bases are being used when, and what aircraft may be parked. It can allow Iran to temporarily slow or halt airfield ops,” he wrote on X.
“Russia may also provide locations on intelligence stations in the region, allowing Iran to put them under drone attack,” Petersen said. Moscow’s satellites can also snoop on US communications so Iran can “understand strategic force dispositions”.
But Petersen pointed out the US had prepared to “operate in environments like this for years” and would have “countermeasures for these eventualities”.
Before the war, China reportedly provided Iran with technology to help rebuild its ballistic missile arsenal, which the 12-day war last June had slashed.
However, Beijing has not intervened to provide concrete assistance in the current conflict, two officials told the Post.
Neither Russia nor China’s foreign office responded to requests for comment.
Moscow has about 110 military satellites in orbit, while Iran has around 13 that are still operational, with three registered to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
On Thursday, Admirall Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, announced US strikes had destroyed Iran’s military space force.
“We’ve also struck Iran’s equivalent of Space Command, which degrades their ability to threaten Americans,” he said.
However, experts doubt it had the ability to do so in the first place.
“They were not a threat in space capabilities,” Victoria Samson, head of the non-profit Secure World Foundation, told the Defense One website. “The threat that they have [is] for counter-space capabilities, they’re great at jamming and spoofing.”
According to the US Space Force, Russia’s own space capabilities have suffered in recent years. The number of satellite launches has declined amid “funding shortfalls, international isolation and broader societal problems”.
Increasingly, Moscow relies on civil and commercial satellite imagery for the war in Ukraine, the US Space Force reports in its fact sheet on foreign threats. That includes purchases from the Chinese company Spacety.
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