Iran has mapped out US flight patterns for air defence: Report

Iran has mapped out US flight patterns for air defence: Report Submitted by MEE staff on Tue, 05/19/2026 - 18:03 Iran may be in a better position to deploy its air defence systems after mapping out US flight patterns with Russian help, official says An Iranian military truck carries parts of the S-300 air defence missile system during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, in Tehran on 21 September 2024 (Atta Kenare/AFP) Off Iranian military commanders may have mapped out flight patterns of  US fighter jets and bombers over their skies, raising the risks should US President Donald Trump decide to restart the war on Iran , a US official told The New York Times. The status of Iran’s air defences is likely a critical component as Trump weighs whether or not to resume attacks on Iran. Trump said on Monday that the US was set to resume attacking Iran on Tuesday, but decided against it because of lobbying from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. “We were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow, and I put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to,” Trump told reporters.  Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have repeatedly claimed that Iran’s military is crippled and without air defence. While the US has generally been able to conduct sorties in Iranian airspace, it does not have total dominance. Days before the US and Iran reached a fragile ceasefire, Iran shot down a F-15E Strike Eagle warplane, sparking a massive US recovery operation for the pilots. If Iran wer...

Original source: Middle East Eye