Reciprocity for the Saudis

The Houthis acquired and fired another of those Iranian missiles, which was intercepted by the Saudis.  The last time this happened the remnants of the missile were put on public display, and fingers were pointed the Iranian’s way because the parts were made in Iran.  We might hope the parts are big enough to identify, yet again.  The New York Times questions whether the missiles actually hit the target, but I don’t think they know much about missiles defense.  The Patriots don’t always have to blow up a target to kill it.

The Saudi’s can play this game if they want to, and reciprocity is always good for discouraging the firing of ballistic missiles into your neighborhoods.  Somebody could get hurt doing that.  So, let the Saudis give a couple of missiles to a bunch of the good guys in Yemen and have them fire these off at a couple of Iranian cities.  They can hope their anti missiles systems will work as good as the Saudi systems did the last two times.

The Iranians have their own, which they call the Bavar 373.  They had the Russian S-300 but that was not provided continued after sanctions started.  They had to build their own, at least that is their story and they are sticking to it.  This is similar to the story the Houthis told about their own missiles, but that turned out to be a fairy tale.  I suspect the Iranian story is equal in fantasy.

One day the Saudis are going to stop playing this game and fire off some of their own through an equal proxy.  That is when we find out if those Russian S-300s really work.  We know how well the Patriot works.  It has a long history in combat.