By Sumit Ahlawat
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has claimed that it has eliminated a second THAAD battery, the world’s most expensive air defense system, in West Asia.
In a statement published on its official news outlet Sepah News, the IRGC said it hit and destroyed the system with precision-guided missiles.
Earlier, Iran claimed to have destroyed the AN/TPY-2 radar component of the THAAD Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) System deployed at Al-Ruwais Industrial City in the United Arab Emirates.
While there has been no confirmation, satellite imagery through open-source intelligence reports suggests there has been a hit. The destroyed radar component is estimated to be worth US$500 million.
This is in addition to the US$1.1 billion early warning radar in Qatar, which was hit by an Iranian missile on the first day of the conflict on February 28.
The AN/FPS-132 phased array radar at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar was hit by an Iranian ballistic missile. It was built by the US in 2013.
Notably, Qatar has confirmed that the radar was hit and damaged.
Together, this represents a systematic downgrading of Washington’s layered missile defence architecture in the region.
The destruction of the US’s most-advanced anti-missile systems in the region will allow the IRGC to target these regions with drones and missiles more successfully.
The IRGC asserted that with the destruction of these high-value air-defense systems, “the missile hand of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been opened for successful target hits.”
Separately, numerous reports have suggested that West Asian countries like the UAE and Qatar are running dangerously low on interceptors and have requested assistance from allies.
On March 2, Bloomberg reported that these countries have only a few days’ worth of interceptors left and could be defenseless if the war lasts more than 10 days.
The report alleged that Qatar has just four days’ worth of Patriot interceptors and had asked for help to counter drone strikes, while the UAE wants medium-range air defence support. However, both Qatar and the UAE have rejected the report as false and misleading.
Irrespective of the number of interceptors stockpiled by these countries, the loss of frontline air defense systems and radars could prove very costly, as Iran still has a substantial arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones.
The situation in the UAE is particularly precarious for several reasons.
Firstly, the loss of the AN/FPS-132 upgraded early-warning radar (UEWR) at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar has substantially degraded the capabilities of all other radars in the region.
UEWR is an AN/FPS-132, two-sided, solid-state phased-array radar system.
Notably, the US operates only three such radars globally: one at Beale Air Force Base, California; one at Pituffik Space Base, Greenland; and one at RAF Fylingdales, United Kingdom.
The fourth AN/FPS-132 Block 5 UEWR was sold to Qatar in 2013 for US$1.1 billion.
Unlike mechanical radars, UEWR’s antenna elements do not move. The radar beam is electronically steered to a programmed location. This process, completed in milliseconds, enhances capabilities and reduces response time.
It detects ballistic missile launches at ranges exceeding 5,000 kilometres. It provides the initial tracking data that allows Patriot, THAAD, and Aegis systems to calculate intercept solutions.
Qatar’s AN/FPS-132 Block 5 UEWR was like the nervous system of the US’s entire missile-defense architecture in the region.
Without its inputs, all other air defense systems in the region will be working on compressed reaction time and degraded situational awareness.
The second reason is that in the first five days of the war, Iran disproportionately targeted the UAE.
So far, Iran has launched 863 missiles and drones at the UAE. Kuwait is a distant second, with Tehran launching 562 missiles and drones at Kuwait. Qatar has faced 162 attacks, and Israel has faced 113.
So, Iran has launched eight times more missiles and drones at the UAE than it has at Israel.
Not only has the UAE faced the highest number of missile and drone attacks, but every drone hitting Dubai and Abu Dhabi is also a long-term strategic and economic nightmare for the country, far more than any other place in the region.
This is because over the last two decades, the UAE has successfully shifted to a non-oil economy. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are today financial centres, transport hubs, and prime real estate markets.
In fact, the non-oil share of real GDP in the UAE has reached as high as 77.5% in 2025.
The UAE has been so successful in this move towards a non-oil economy only because it could provide safety, security, and the rule of law.
Every Iranian drone that breaches the UAE air defense shield is puncturing and hollowing out that image of the UAE as an oasis of safety and security in the region.
In this sense, the UAE will suffer the repercussions of this conflict far longer than the actual war.
Additionally, while facing the greatest onslaught of Iranian missiles and drones, the UAE is now essentially without an anti-ballistic missile shield.
Before the war started, the UAE had two THAAD batteries: one at Al-Ruwais (for energy-sector protection) and another near Abu Dhabi.
Incidentally, the UAE was also the first foreign customer of the THAAD air defense system.
According to Iranian claims, both of these THAAD batteries have now been hit.
If Iranian claims are accurate, this is a devastating blow for the country’s layered air defense system.
THAAD is widely believed to be the world’s most expensive air defense system, with the price of one complete battery ranging from US$1 billion to US$2.7 billion.
The UAE, however, is facing much bigger losses in the coming days.
With the loss of Qatar’s early warning radar and the loss of the UAE’s two THAAD batteries, more and more Iranian drones and missiles have a chance of penetrating the Emirati air defense shield and hitting high-value targets.
If the Iranian claims are accurate, it is also a big setback for the US’s war effort, as well as for its military-industrial complex.
THAAD is touted as the US’s most-advanced air defense system.
“The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) is a highly effective, combat-proven defense against short, medium, and intermediate-range ballistic missile threats. THAAD is the only U.S. system designed to intercept targets outside and inside the atmosphere,” Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the AD system, claims.
So far, only 10 THAAD batteries have been built. The US operates seven of these; two are with the UAE, and one is with Saudi Arabia.
If Iran is able to take out two of these batteries during active war, then this is a severe blow to the reputation of US weapon systems.
In the future, any country will think twice before shelling out over US$1 billion for the THAAD air defense system.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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