00:16Just days after new U.S. carrier movements into the Middle East, and fresh warnings from Washington,
00:22a quiet but massive shift is happening inside Iran's defense network.
00:27This isn't about a new missile test. It's about radars, satellites, and software. And it's China at the center of
00:35it.
00:37After Israel's 2025 strikes exposed gaps in Iran's air defense and cyber systems, Tehran didn't just patch holes. It rewired
00:46the system.
00:48First, the radar. China has supplied Iran with multiple YLC-8B long-range UHF-band surveillance radars,
00:56developed by the Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology.
01:00These aren't ordinary radars. They operate in the UHF-band, longer wavelengths. And that matters.
01:07Most stealth aircraft, like the F-35 Lightning II or the B-2 Spirit, are designed to avoid detection by
01:13high-frequency X and KU-band radars.
01:16Their shaping, their coatings, their angles. All optimized for those frequencies.
01:21But UHF waves behave differently. They diffract. They bend. They reflect back more easily.
01:27Meaning, stealth isn't invisible, just harder to see.
01:31The reported range? Over 500 kilometers for conventional aircraft. Around 350 kilometers, sometimes more, according to claims, for stealth targets.
01:40And up to 700 kilometers for ballistic missile early warning.
01:44This is not fire control precision. It won't guide a missile to impact. But it does something critical. It shrinks
01:51the invisible window.
01:53If Iran can see a stealth jet earlier, even imperfectly, it can scramble defenses, disperse assets, prepare missiles, activate systems
02:00like the HQ-9B. And that changes timing.
02:03Analysts say this is one of the few systems capable of continuous long-range stealth surveillance.
02:09Skeptics note, UHF radars have limitations. Lower resolution, less precision. They've existed for decades.
02:16The US and Israel have electronic countermeasures. But even so, the bar just got higher.
02:23Second, navigation. In mid-2025, Iran fully switched off nationwide GPS reception and transitioned to China's Beidou navigation satellite system.
02:33This is huge. GPS is US-controlled. In a conflict, it can be degraded, spoofed, jammed.
02:39By moving to Beidou, Iran reduces that leverage. Its missiles, drones, naval assets, now run on a system designed to
02:46be more resilient in contested environments.
02:49Chinese officials called it a boost to Iran's digital sovereignty. Strategically, it makes precision strikes harder to disrupt.
02:58Third, cyberspace. After Mossad-linked hacks and database breaches during and after the June 2025 clashes, China's Ministry of State
03:05Security, the MSS, pushed Iran to replace Western software stacks, cybersecurity tools, databases, civil registries, command networks.
03:13Out, U.S. and Israeli-linked systems. In, closed encrypted Chinese alternatives. The goal? Harden against infiltration.
03:21Past sabotage, like radar blinding or targeted assassinations, depended on digital access. This move closes doors. Not perfectly, but meaningfully.
03:32All of this fits into a bigger picture. The 2025-25 year China-Iran agreement, worth around $400 billion, locked
03:39in Chinese investment in oil, gas and infrastructure.
03:42Iran is a major supplier to China, and 20-30% of global crude passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
03:48Beijing has no interest in a collapsed Iran, but it also avoids direct combat, so it provides tools, not troops.
03:55Meanwhile, the U.S. has moved carrier strike groups into the region, including the USS Abraham Lincoln, with the USS
04:00Gerald R. Ford reportedly en route.
04:02This is coercive signaling, not panic. Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth put it clearly,
04:11He pointed to January 2026, when the U.S. launched Operation Absolute Resolution in Venezuela and captured Nicolas Maduro, calling
04:18it quick and decisive.
04:19But Iran is not Venezuela. It has ballistic missiles, proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis, control near the Strait of
04:25Hormuz, backing, indirect but real, from China and Russia, and an advanced nuclear program.
04:29A strike here risks regional war, oil shocks, global economic fallout.
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