Agnes Helou is Breaking Defense's Middle East Bureau Chief, with close to a decade of experience in covering regional defense and strategic topics. She was the managing Editor of Security and Defense Arabia, an Arabic language defense website and magazine, and covered the Middle East and North Africa defense and security topics for Defense News for three years. Her reporting expertise covers the Gulf, North Africa, Middle East and Southern Europe.
Agnes has a master’s degree and is pursuing her PhD in media economics from the Doctoral School of Literature, Humanities & Social Sciences in Lebanon. Her interests include artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, air defense, maritime and border security regional strategic issues.
Though virtually none of the estimated 170 drones Iran launched at Israel got through defenses, analysts told Breaking Defense there’s an eager market globally for Tehran’s relatively cheap, normally effective UAVs.
Tehran has been increasingly public about its air defense capabilities, including showing off models of systems at a recent international defense expo.
Amid Iranian criticism, “Jordanian leaders have been very clear to portray their action as defensive and in protection of their own sovereignty rather than any act in support of Israel, and this is sincere,” an analyst told Breaking Defense.
“We are confident that this strategic expansion will bolster our operations and contribute to our sustained growth and success in Latin America,” Aselsan’s general manager, Ahmet Akyol, said in a statement.
Analyst Jean Marc Rickli told Breaking Defense that especially when it comes to the proliferation of UAVs, “one of the best ways to counter them is to jam their communication systems by cutting the link between them and the operator or the GPS signal.”
“It also shows how dangerous it is to equip a networked actor such as the Houthis with such a capability. The consequences for regional security are problematic,” an analyst told Breaking Defense.
“They’re trying to get what they want. They’re trying to replace the West and, moreover, the United States in our access and influence across this crucial continent,” US Africa Command chief Gen. Michael Langley told lawmakers.
The agreement speaks “volumes about EDGE’s resolve to develop sound domestic production capabilities of next-gen radar systems in the short term and to position itself as a competitive radar production hub regionally in the long run,” one analyst told Breaking Defense.
Of a larger conflict, retired Lebanese Brig. Gen. Naji Mlaeb told Breaking Defense, “Hezbollah is ready but it doesn’t want it, while Israel wants [it] but is not ready” to fight on two fronts. That may soon change.
Qatar indicated it was going with France’s VBCI back in 2017, but as no final order has been signed, competition with fellow KNDS-produced vehicle Boxer is alive and well.
In 2019 the US State Department approved the sale of 60 PAC-3 MSE and 36 Patriot MIM-104E Guidance Enhanced Missiles (GEM-T) missiles with canisters to Bahrain in a deal worth an estimated $2.5 billion.
