The United Arab Emirates has absorbed the majority of Iranian missile and drone attacks across the Persian Gulf since the Iran War started on February 28. While the country has never faced sustained attacks like these before, Abu Dhabi has, in a sense, been preparing for a war like this for 40 years and has accordingly built a formidable air defense system.
The UAEās defense ministry reported fresh Iranian missile and drone attacks on Saturday, clarifying that explosions heard throughout the country āare the result of the Air Defense Systems intercepting missiles and drones.ā
Abu Dhabi operates several ground-based air defense systems from various countries, as well as a formidable fighter fleet. Despite this, the sheer scale of Iranian attacks, targeting everything from military bases to energy facilities and hotels, has undoubtedly put a strain on these finite defenses. Since the start of the war, the UAE has reported extremely high intercept rates of the incoming Iranian munitions. As of Friday, it estimates it has intercepted a total of 338 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles, and 1,740 drones since February 28.
Unsurprisingly, the State Department released several press releases on Thursday outlining the military hardware and munitions Abu Dhabi has requested. These include a $4.5 billion sale of Long-Range Discrimination Radar with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Integration. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, is the most advanced ground-based system in the Emirati arsenal, designed to intercept various ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of flight. Itās also the most advanced anti-ballistic system in the entire region aside from Israelās Arrow 3.
Additionally, Abu Dhabi has requested a $644 million sale of munitions and upgrades for its F-16 fleet, which remains the backbone of its air force, and 400 AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles for $1.22 billion. And the Emirati government ordered 10 Fixed Site- Low, Slow, Small, Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat System, FS-LIDS, for an estimated $2.10 billion.
And if that wasnāt enough, The Wall Street Journal also reported on Thursday that the Trump administration approved approximately $7 billion in additional sales, including Patriot PAC-3 missiles for $5.6 billion and CH-47 Chinook utility helicopters for approximately $1.32 billion.
Aside from the CH-47s, all of these orders are for systems and munitions needed for combating the daily, if not hourly, threat of Iranian missiles and drones. The THAAD and Patriot PAC-3s, with their hit-to-kill technologies, for the ballistic missiles and the AIM-120s fired by F-16s and ground-launched FS-LIDS for the persistent drone threat. The order for the THAAD radar was noteworthy, given that Iran managed to hit advanced radars like these early in this war.
