Iran’s much improved missile systems pose a real threat to the US

President Trump at the transfer of the remains of US army service members 1st Lt Tyler James Feehan, Sgt Angel S Rampersad, Pvt Isabella Gonzales and Sgt Michael Emmanuel Swinton at Dover AFB, Dover, Delaware on 22 July. Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters View image in fullscreen President Trump at the transfer of the remains of US army service members 1st Lt Tyler James Feehan, Sgt Angel S Rampersad, Pvt Isabella Gonzales and Sgt Michael Emmanuel Swinton at Dover AFB, Dover, Delaware on 22 July. Photograph: Evan Vucci/Reuters Analysis Iran’s much improved missile systems pose a real threat to the US Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor Tehran’s increasingly accurate and lethal attacks are showing up failures in American air defences in the Gulf As the crisis in the Middle East escalates, Iran has been bombing US bases and critical infrastructure in the Gulf with increasing accuracy, helped by Chinese satellite imagery and tactics learned from Russia in Ukraine. Three American soldiers were killed last Friday in an attack on the Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan, which was being protected by a US Thaad air defence system. Satellite imagery later released by Iranian media showed several buildings had been completely destroyed. It is not clear why the air defence system failed on that occasion, in an incident that remains under Pentagon investigation, but it is a reminder that Iran retains an effective missile capability that its new leadership is willing to deploy. Almost 100 troops injured in recent weeks, Pentagon admits, as Iran launches reprisals on US allies Read more Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at the School of Security Studies, King’s College London, argues that a combination of better intelligence, missile navigation, manoeuvrability and coordinated attack planning amount to “a real transformation”. It is the product, Krieg said, of three years of technological development of Iran’s ballistic missile programme, which remains roughly 70% intact on US intelligence estimates , despite previous US claims that Iran’s military had been obliterated. The first step is using Chinese satellite intelligence to help identify targets at US bases and other sites in the Gulf. Three Chinese companies had sanctions imposed on them by the US in May for providing satellite imagery to enable Iranian missile attacks. One, Mizar Vision, exposed the presence of US military aircraft and Patriot and Thaad air defence systems at bases in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and at the Jordanian base hit last week, and imagery released on social media was widely picked up. Has Trump dragged the US into a forever war in Iran? | Mohamad Bazzi Read more Experts say they are less sure the Chinese state has been providing intelligence, however. Sidharth Kaushal of the Royal United Services Institute, said Iran’s military has focused on static targets at US bases, for which commercial imagery is enough. “I haven’t seen anything where Iran has struck a target so dynamic that I’ve