If recent reports are accurate, China has begun to give Russia significant competition in the lucrative Middle Eastern and North African arms market, especially when it comes to exports of air defense systems.
Iran has received Chinese surface-to-air missile systems since the recent 12-day war with Israel, the London-based Middle East Eye outlet reported Monday, citing Arab officials. It’s unclear how many systems or which type Iran has received, although the report states Tehran is paying with oil shipments.
The HQ-9 is China’s version of the Russian S-300, and the HQ-9B is an extended-range version. Export variants are known as the FD-2000 and FD-2000B, respectively.
Any timely delivery of the HQ-9B/FD-2000B, in particular, to Tehran would send a strong signal to Moscow. Until recently, the most advanced air defense system Iran ever imported was the Russian S-300 PMU-2, which Tehran received in 2016. However, in two rounds of strikes in April and October 2024, Israel disabled the majority, if not the entirety, of Iran’s S-300 arsenal without suffering any losses. The 12-day war in June likely destroyed any of the remaining S-300 components. Iran paid approximately $1 billion for these missile defense systems and waited almost a decade for delivery.
Aside from its disappointment with the S-300’s performance, Tehran is undoubtedly frustrated with Russia’s non-delivery of Su-35 Flanker fighter jets that it ordered and paid for early in this decade. Such disappointment, coupled with an urgent need to rebuild its air defense, may prompt Iran to pursue China’s Chengdu J-10C Vigorous Dragon fighter instead, especially if it’s satisfied with Beijing’s prompt delivery of surface-to-air missiles in its urgent time of need.
The reported Iran SAM delivery came little more than a week after retired high-ranking Egyptian military official Samir Farag confirmed Egypt’s acquisition of the HQ-9B in an interview with Egypt’s Sada El-Balad TV. The Diplomat also reported in May that Cairo had confirmed purchasing the HQ-9B and speculated Beijing “may use Y-20 aircraft to deliver HQ-9B systems to Egypt, just as it previously transported HQ-22 air defense missile systems to Serbia when the landlocked European country was virtually isolated.”
Nevertheless, it’s also a way of hedging against chronic delays in Russia’s supply of spare parts of technical support for foreign operators of Russian military hardware in the wake of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
HQ-9B Missile
The HQ-9B, developed by China’s CPMIEC, offers Tehran a leap forward in multi-layered air defence coverage, with an intercept envelope extending up to 200 kilometres and an engagement altitude ranging from 27 kilometres.
Each missile in the HQ-9B family can reportedly hit supersonic speeds of Mach 4.2, enhancing its ability to counter aircraft and missiles.
A core advantage of the HQ-9B is its phased-array radar, which enables it to detect and track aircraft — including fighters at ranges exceeding 200 kilometres.
Each battery typically comprises a high-performance fire control radar, up to eight transporter erector launchers (TELs) carrying four missiles apiece, and a mobile command suite supported by logistic vehicles.
Pakistan began integrating the HQ-9B into its air defence network as early as 2021, viewing it as a critical hedge against India’s expanding combat air fleet and ballistic missile inventory.
Iran is interested in the Chinese J-10C
Global Defense Corp sees the fresh HQ-9B deployment as a vivid signal that Iran’s military ties with China are poised to deepen, a trend reinforced by Tehran’s newfound appetite for the J-10C multirole fighter after Moscow repeatedly delayed deliveries of the Su-35.
Iranian Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh’s recent presence in Qingdao for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting, a Russia–China security bloc, has only fanned speculation that the J-10C purchase may soon follow the HQ-9B acquisition.
Regional defence sources suggest Tehran is now weighing whether China’s J-10C — backed by the formidable PL-15E beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air missile — can bridge its capability gap more rapidly than the elusive Su-35 deal with Russia, which has been stuck for years.
International security experts believe the performance of the Pakistan Air Force’s J-10C jets during the brief but intense India–Pakistan aerial stand-off in May provided a real-world validation of the platform’s combat credentials.
Pakistan’s J-10Cs, armed with China’s next-generation PL-15E missiles, reportedly shot down one Jaguar fighter and bombed Indian territory, a claim that — if verified — underscores the operational impact of modern Chinese fighter-bomber doctrine in contested airspace.
For Tehran, integrating the J-10C into its order of battle would represent the biggest injection of fresh air combat capability in decades, as the Iranian Air Force continues to rely on legacy F-4 Phantoms, F-14 Tomcats, and MiG-29s procured during the Shah’s era more than half a century ago.
The stark limitations of Iran’s older aircraft and its domestic Bavar-373 air defence system were exposed during the 12-day confrontation with Israel, when multiple Israeli strikes reportedly evaded detection and interception.
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