❗️War on Iran exposes major weaknesses in Gulf states' trillion-dollar defenses

A study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) says Gulf states will need to overhaul their trillion-dollar defense systems after Iranian attacks inflicted significant damage on their economies and exposed doubts over the effectiveness of US military protection. In the weeks before the 8 April ceasefire, 12 regional countries, mostly in the Gulf, faced 4,670 Iranian one-way attack drones and more than 1,400 ballistic missiles, nearly half of which targeted the United Arab Emirates. Although most were intercepted, damage to energy infrastructure is estimated to have reached as much as $58 billion. The report warns that any reduction or withdrawal of US forces would be portrayed by Iran as “a strategic success and vindication of its steadfastness, but also use it to embarrass the Gulf states about their decades-long courtship of US protection”.

The study says the US-Israeli war on Iran exposed the failure of Gulf states' trillion-dollar purchases of predominantly US-made weapons to secure adequate US protection, while revealing their lack of preparation for prolonged aerial warfare. It identifies major weaknesses, including dependence on US-supplied air and missile defense systems and ammunition, poor regional defense integration, insufficient minesweeping capabilities, limited retaliatory options, and the high cost of using advanced weapons against relatively cheap drones and missiles. While taking no position on whether divided Gulf states should pursue a new non-aggression agreement with Iran, the report concludes that longstanding US defense partnerships have failed to provide adequate protection against Iranian attacks, adding: “If anything, US military bases and defence partnerships with the US have provided Iran with another pretext for attacks against the Gulf states.”