Russia and China aid Iran in monitoring battlefield activity

US Officials Reveal Russia’s Intelligence Sharing with Iran, Altering Gulf Dynamics

Three senior American officials have disclosed to The Washington Post that Russia is providing Iran with sensitive intelligence, including precise locations of US warships and aircraft operating in the Middle East. This revelation has shed light on a new kind of warfare, characterized by the use of radar beams, satellite feeds, and encrypted coordinates.

According to reports, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied sharing such intelligence with Iran during a call with US President Donald Trump. However, this denial does not change the fact that Russia has received Iranian drones and munitions for its war in Ukraine and has been observed providing targeting intelligence used to strike Russian positions.

The calculus behind Russia’s actions is clear: intelligence is a valuable resource. Putin is utilizing this resource to gain an advantage in modern warfare, where coordinates are often more valuable than bullets. The axiom that whoever knows where the enemy is wins is now being played out in real-time across the Gulf.

Russia’s advanced overhead surveillance network, including the Kanopus-V satellite, provides Iran with round-the-clock optical and radar imagery. This has enabled Tehran to locate US and Israeli assets with precision, which would be difficult for Iran to achieve alone.

China also plays a significant role in this dynamic, having spent years reshaping Iran’s electronic warfare landscape through the export of advanced radar systems and transitioning Iranian military navigation from US GPS to China’s encrypted BeiDou-3 constellation. Beijing has drawn on its expanding satellite network to support signals intelligence and terrain mapping for Iranian forces.

The implications of these developments are significant, with analysts noting that every second counts in modern warfare. The acquisition by Iran of 50 CM-302 supersonic antiship missiles, capable of traveling at Mach 3, further underscores the evolving nature of this conflict.

Source: Al Jazeera