Iran Air Defense Launches Wargames to Prepare for Possible Attack

Massive Operation Aims at Protecting 'Sensitive Sites'

by Jason Ditz, November 12, 2012

Iran’s Air Defense Forces have begun a week-long series of wargames, including some 8,000 soldiers and multiple systems, aimed at defending against possible military attack from either Israel or the United States.

The operation focuses around testing equipment and preparing to defend “hypothetical sensitive sites” that are liable to be attacked in any given strike from the two nations. Officials say it proves their preparedness ahead of a possible conflict.

With threats of attack from the two nations for decades and the threats picking up pace over the past few years, Iran has had plenty of advanced notice, and has invested most of its military budget in defensive weapons to fend off possible attacks by air or sea.

How likely such an attack really is remains unclear, however, particularly after the revelation over the weekend that it is now believed one of the key sites to be attacked, Fordow, is too far underground for conventional weapons, and could only be destroyed with a nuclear attack, presumably a step too far even for Israel’s hawkish far-right government.

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