UAE’s Sophisticated Air Defense More Diverse Than Ever After Iran War

The revelation that Israel deployed an Iron Dome system along with troops to the United Arab Emirates during the Iran war is the latest indication that Abu Dhabi has emerged from this war with a more diversified air defense than ever. That outcome is significant, considering the country had already built one of the most multilayered and sophisticated air defenses worldwide, sourced from multiple countries.

In a truly unprecedented move, Israel discreetly sent one of its well-known Iron Dome systems to the Arab Gulf state early in the Iran war, Axios reported on Sunday. The outlet noted that this marked the first time that the Israeli system, designed for intercepting short-range rockets like those fired from Hamas in the Gaza Strip, was deployed and used outside of Israel and the United States.

Throughout the war—from February 28 until the April 8 ceasefire—Iran launched daily missile and drone attacks against the Emirates, totaling 537 ballistic missiles, 2,256 drones, and 26 cruise missiles. The majority of these were intercepted, although some made it through the country’s advanced defenses. Shrapnel from intercepted projectiles also caused some damage.

According to Axios, the Israeli Iron Dome intercepted dozens of incoming Iranian missiles over the UAE. The deployment most likely does not indicate a direct transfer of the Iron Dome to the Emirati military, which isn’t known to operate that system. It’s appears similar to the 2024 U.S. deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense to Israel with troops to help bolster its exoatmospheric Arrow 3 anti-ballistic systems, another wholly unprecedented air defense deployment in the region at the time.

Of course, the UAE may well buy the Iron Dome in the near future, especially if it assesses its performance in the war was impressive. Since normalizing ties with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham Accords during the first Trump administration, the UAE has discreetly acquired other Israeli air defense systems, including the SPYDER-ER and Barak short- and medium-range systems around 2022. It’s unclear how extensively these were used in the Iran war or how effective they were against the repeated Iranian barrages.

UAE air defenses achieved many firsts in this war and in the years preceding it. For example, the country became the first foreign buyer of South Korea’s advanced medium-range Cheongung-II system, also known as the KM-SAM, in 2022. That system can intercept ballistic threats more cost-effectively than systems like the Patriot PAC-3. At the time, that $3.5 billion order marked South Korea’s largest-ever arms export deal. Additionally, during the war, the UAE became the first-ever country to use the Korean system in combat. Abu Dhabi fired 60 interceptor missiles against 30 targets, eliminating 29 of them, achieving an impressive 96 percent hit rate, Korea JoongAng Daily reported in early March. As a result, Seoul can now market the system, which neighboring Saudi Arabia has also ordered, as combat-proven.

It was merely the latest successful combat debut of an advanced air defense in Emirati service. In the 2010s, the UAE was also the first foreign country to buy the above-mentioned, high-end U.S. THAAD system, a decade before neighboring Saudi Arabia ordered it. The first known combat kill achieved by a THAAD was also Emirati-owned, successfully intercepting a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis in Yemen at Abu Dhabi in January 2022.

In addition to all of these systems, the UAE also operates the advanced American Patriot PAC-3, also capable of intercepting ballistic missiles with hit-to-kill technology. Furthermore, it became the launch customer for Russia’s medium-range Pantsir-S1 in the early 2000s, designed for point defense.

Having endured this war and the largest number bombardments directed against it ever by far, Abu Dhabi will most definitely continue buying numerous air defenses from several countries to combat these various aerial threats it faces.

In the first weeks of the Iran war, it became clear that drones were slipping through the air defenses of the UAE and other Arab Gulf states more than the ballistic missiles. There are several reasons for this, ranging from the less predictable trajectories of drones compared to the much faster missiles, the greater numbers fired, and the reluctance of these states to expend multi-million-dollar interceptors against drones costing approximately $35,000.

Unsurprisingly, Ukraine, which has faced the same Iranian-made Shahed-type drones since 2022, seized the opportunity to pitch its indigenous defense systems during the war. It promptly sent more than 200 anti-drone specialists to the Gulf states and sought cash and technology in return.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has proposed that these wealthy states could provide Ukraine with some Patriot PAC-3 interceptors to prevent its stockpiles from depleting in return for specialized combat-proven Ukrainian anti-drone systems. Kyiv’s domestic anti-drone systems and techniques have proven highly capable of shooting down inbound Shaheds, the same types Iran has fired in large numbers at the Gulf. However, it relies heavily on the PAC-3 interceptors to shoot down Russia’s ballistic missiles, and these expensive interceptors are always in short supply. A single PAC-3 missile costs approximately $4 million. Ukraine has pitched anti-drone interceptors that could eventually cost as little as $2,000 per shot, suggesting the UAE or other Gulf states could get as many as 2,000 of them in return for a single one of their PAC-3 missiles!

Zelenskyy traveled across the Gulf, including the UAE, later in the war and signed multiple defense agreements, including years-long cooperative agreements on air and drone defense.

The UAE will doubtlessly incorporate Ukrainian drone defense systems and doctrines into its broader air defense system in the near future. In fact, one shouldn’t be surprised if Abu Dhabi buys additional and new systems from several countries. These could include Israel’s Iron Dome or even its new Iron Beam laser defense system in addition to multiple American, Korean, and now Ukrainian systems. It’s unclear whether it might seek additional Russian-made hardware at this stage. However, Abu Dhabi may ultimately supplement its expanding drone defenses with Russia’s new Pantsir-SMD-E variant, designed to combat drone swarms, which Moscow incidentally unveiled at the 2025 Dubai Airshow. Doing so would be in line with its consistent decades-old strategy of widely diversifying procurement sources.

The UAE has a carefully cultivated reputation as a highly secure, safe haven in a region notorious for its seemingly perennial instability and volatility. As this war aptly and repeatedly demonstrated on a daily basis, air defenses are absolutely essential for maintaining and safeguarding this central reputation. Consequently, expect nothing less than the UAE to acquire the very best systems available on the market that its abundance of money can buy, no matter the supplier.