Although no casualties have been reported because of Iran’s missile assault on U.S. targets within the Center East – a retaliation after Operation Midnight Hammer – we now know that some pretty important harm was sustained at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Most of Iran’s missiles have been intercepted by air protection batteries, however no less than one missile made it via the defensive defend.
Satellite tv for pc pictures captured following the assault confirmed an space with scorch marks and particles which, on earlier imagery, was the positioning of a geodesic radome. The radome and the antenna concerned have been shortly recognized simply from these pictures, however we now have a view from the bottom of the stricken, burned antenna dish itself. For sure, the dish has been considerably broken and far of the system will possible require whole alternative.
Unique: A U.S. army radome was destroyed in Iran’s June 23 strike on Al Udeid. A element absent from the Pentagon’s preliminary statements pic.twitter.com/8EYmxYGrWy
— Fardad Farahzad | فرداد فرحزاد (@FardadFarahzad) July 10, 2025
Al Udeid is a serious hub of U.S. exercise within the area, housing a ahead headquarters for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), the 609th Air Operations Heart, and a wide selection of U.S. Air Pressure plane. As such, the bottom hosts a large focus of U.S. communications capabilities that enable data to be relayed between CENTCOM and commanders within the continental U.S. or with allies internationally successfully in actual time.
A part of this entails connecting to the U.S. Wideband World Satellite tv for pc Communications system (WGS), a brand new community, with satellites nonetheless being rolled out, utilizing each Ka-band and X-band frequencies. WGS allows worldwide C4ISR (Command, Management, Communications, Computer systems, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) for the U.S. in addition to choose companions, at a a lot greater capability than legacy techniques.
A single WGS satellite tv for pc is alleged to supply a higher capability for concurrent communications than your complete legacy Protection Satellite tv for pc Communications System III (DSCS III) community mixed. Ten WGS satellites have been launched to orbit, with WGS-11 anticipated to hitch them at a while this yr.
Congratulations @usairforce, @ulalaunch & @Boeing on the tenth Wideband World SATCOM launch aboard #DeltaIV on March 15. This newest satellite tv for pc completes the WGS constellation, @AFSpace experiences, offering high-capacity communications to the best combating pressure within the galaxy pic.twitter.com/RBCCCCyDXV
— James Drew (@StrikeWriter) March 17, 2019
At Al Udeid, a devoted antenna for connecting to this, and to the legacy techniques which stay in use, was declared operational in January 2016. Known as the Modernized Enterprise Terminal (MET), and produced by L3Harris, the communications system was the primary of its type put in outdoors of the US.
The particular designation of the dish antenna, which is one in all a number of choices provided by L3Harris within the MET household, seems to be AN/GSC-52B(V5). L3Harris calls it the Massive Mounted Terminal, with a dish dimension of 12.2 metres. The primary MET, full with an AN/GSC-52B(V5) was put in on the Wahiawa Satellite tv for pc Communications Facility in Hawaii in mid 2015. Not like in Qatar, the dish in Hawaii is open to the weather and never protected by a radome.
Fixing the Harm
Changing this dish will possible be a excessive precedence for U.S. forces in order that full communications capability might be reinstated. Whereas this effort is organized and accomplished, it’s doable that one of many smaller techniques within the MET program could be deployed to the bottom as an interim resolution – alternatively, one such system could be completely positioned at Al Udeid or at one other close by CENTCOM base particularly to cowl this eventuality.
There are two transportable satellite tv for pc antennas, each 7.2 metres in diameter, provided by L3Harris as a part of the MET program – a regular model and a hardened model. Each are trailer mounted, however the latter is housed inside a radome. The efficiency of the smaller antennas can’t match that of the bigger mounted terminal, however they might possible work as a stopgap resolution.
Though the goal is much less excessive profile than, for instance, a U.S. Air Pressure plane on the tarmac, the obvious option to strike this radome reveals some smart move making on Iran’s behalf. Not like an plane, or every other sort of car, this radome is a set level that can’t be moved and evacuated. Moreover, reinforcing the construction to face up to an assault – because the U.S. Air Operations Centre on the base is more likely to be – wouldn’t be doable with out compromising the antenna’s communications functionality.
Nonetheless, in selecting this website Iran additionally lessened the chance of serious casualties, which might be a think about probably scary a U.S. retaliation to their retaliation – this being mentioned, we have no idea the place the missiles that have been intercepted have been concentrating on. And we do, after all, assume right here that the radome was in actual fact focused and never merely the results of a fortunate hit.
U.S. officers have confirmed to CNN that non-sheltered USAF plane have been evacuated from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and U.S. Navy vessels beforehand forward-deployed at Naval Assist Exercise Bahrain have additionally repositioned.
Moreover, medical logistics have been… pic.twitter.com/zi54fIhXpg
— GMI (@Global_Mil_Info) June 19, 2025
These vulnerabilities have undoubtedly been thought-about by the U.S. army, and mitigation measures (for instance, the deployment of a transportable terminal) have virtually definitely been deliberate for for a few years, however even a small hit to their communications capability at such an necessary location has the potential to be a serious hindrance to ongoing operations.
Opposite to some reporting, together with by Iranian media, the dish will not be a part of an early warning radar system, or any type of radar system. Even with out the information of the antenna’s actual perform, it’s clear primarily based on the place of the radome at floor degree in the midst of a nest of buildings that it will be an unsuitable place to website a radar antenna.
Employees within the close by buildings can be inside the radiation hazard zone, and buildings would prohibit the radar’s view of decrease altitudes – one of the essential zones for a radar to scan, particularly so as to see plane at altitude at higher distances. Because of this, air visitors management radars – together with one beforehand proven at Al Udeid – are often housed on high of a tower.
