Prince Sultan

Iran struck Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia twice in one week. In the two attacks combined, at least 29 US soldiers were wounded, five of them seriously. According to The Wall Street Journal, one of the aircraft hit was an E-3 Sentry, the airborne early warning and control system used to detect missile and drone launches at ranges of hundreds of kilometres. Several refuelling aircraft were also damaged in the second strike, on Friday night.

According to Alma Research, Russia provided Iran with updated satellite imagery of Prince Sultan after the first Iranian attack last week. If true, the second strike was guided by Russian intelligence, which would explain its greater precision.

Prince Sultan, in al-Kharj south of Riyadh, is one of the main US Air Force operating bases in the region. It hosts fighters, bombers, tankers and air defence systems. That Iran can strike it with enough accuracy to damage an E-3 Sentry, a very high-value asset, after a month of air campaign designed to destroy its offensive capability, says something about the limits of degradation. Iranian forces are diminished, but not eliminated. And the targets they choose speak to a deliberate strategy: not to strike where the most soldiers are, but where the most value is.