Blow to US air superiority? Iran claims it ‘damaged’ an E-3 Sentry AWACS at Saudi air base | Why this matters

The airbase, 96 kilometres (60 miles) from the Saudi capital Riyadh, came under attack at least two more times last week, including a strike that wounded 14 US personnel, AP reported. Earlier in the conflict, the US suspended consular services in the country following an attack on its embassy compound.

In total, more than two dozen US troops were wounded in Iranian attacks on the Saudi airbase over the week, sources told the news agency. More than 300 US service members have been injured in the war in West Asia, with at least 13 reported killed.

New image reportedly showing the USAF E-3 Sentry destroyed in an Iranian attack at Prince Sultan Airbase on Friday.

Matches 81-0005, an E-3C seen deployed to the base in recent weeks. pic.twitter.com/zRVzzkEPeU

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 29, 2026

What are AWACS

Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) can detect, identify, and track airborne enemy forces from afar. The development is pivotal as Saudi Arabia and several other Gulf countries aligned with the US have come under Iranian attacks since the conflict began.

The Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS provides an “accurate, real-time picture of the battlespace to the Joint Air Operations Center,” according to the Official United States Air Force Website​. The Pentagon had deployed six of these aircraft to West Asia before the war began.

This Cold War-era platform was used extensively during the Gulf War (1991). The US Air Force has only 16 of these aircraft left in its fleet, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The US Air Force has only 16 of these aircraft left in its fleet. (Credit: af.mil)

According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report from July 2024, there are eight persistent bases and 11 other military sites that the US Department of Defense can access in the region.

While Iran has maintained that the American and Israeli establishments in the region are its “legitimate targets,” various civilian installations and energy facilities have been targeted as well. Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura refinery, the largest of its kind in West Asia, and its refinery in ‌the Red Sea port of Yanbu also came under attack, in line with Tehran’s strategy of choking energy supplies from the Gulf.

AWACS are crucial to air defence, and the Sentry offers a radar range of more than 375 kilometres, according to the USAF website. This bolsters the US and its allies’ abilities to intercept aerial threats amid Iranian retaliatory strikes.

There has been a large-scale deployment of US troops in the region in recent days alongside recurring reports of Trump mulling an assault and takeover of Iran’s Kharg Island, which handles 90 per cent of Tehran’s oil exports. Previously, the Department of Defense sought $200 billion in additional funds from Congress for the war.

Amid the mounting global energy crisis and America’s rift with NATO allies, Iran has also resorted to psychological warfare.

Tehran appeared to signal its awareness of these developments, with the front page of The Tehran Times warning Washington that “US troops who set foot on Iranian soil will leave only in a coffin.”

On Sunday, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said that the country is “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever.”

Maintaining air superiority will be pivotal during a ground assault, since Iran has utilised nearly every aspect of its asymmetric advantage, including economical Shahed ‘suicide’ drones. AWACS can provide vital support to ground operations by enhancing the radar range of fighter jets and attack aircraft supporting troops.

Moreover, an assault could prompt large-scale retaliatory strikes, where these AWACS could come in handy in missile interception.

Why Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations haven’t sided with Iran

Saudi Arabia’s — and the larger Gulf Arab states’ — troubled relations with Tehran go beyond the ideological Shia-Sunni divide.

The Gulf has viewed the growth of Tehran’s conventional armed forces, its nuclear programme, and alleged hegemonic tendencies as threats since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. After the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Tehran had adopted a policy of “exporting” its revolution.

The concerns over security threats, ideological subversion, and regional instability posed by Ba’athism (in Iraq) and the revolution in Iran were among the factors that led to the birth of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an intergovernmental organisation that has largely remained aligned with Washington for its security needs.

The US-Saudi strategic partnership had been implicitly following an “oil-for-security arrangement,” where Washington provided security guarantees in exchange for stable global oil supplies from the world’s largest crude exporter. The ambit of this arrangement expanded with the creation of the GCC.

Saudi-US-Iran triangle

In 2019, the Houthis, an Iran-backed Yemeni proxy group, attacked Saudi oil facilities, temporarily knocking out half of the kingdom’s oil output. In 2022, the group attacked the Abu Dhabi International Airport in the UAE. In 2023, a China-brokered deal briefly restored diplomatic ties between Riyadh and Tehran.

However, after the US-Israeli assault on February 28, which killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran retaliated with drone and missile attacks on the Gulf states.

Last week, the New York Times reported that Saudi Arabia’s Prime Minister, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been urging US President Donald Trump to continue the war against Iran. The report said that Mohammed bin Salman argued the campaign presents a “historic opportunity” to reshape the region.

Riyadh has been among those most alarmed in West Asia regarding Tehran’s nuclear programme. In 2018 and 2023, Prince Salman said that if Tehran built a bomb, Saudi Arabia would soon follow to deter the threat and balance power in the region.

Last month, Reuters reported that the Trump administration waived certain non-proliferation safeguards in the civil nuclear agreement with Riyadh. (The US Congress has a 90-day window to scrutinise the deal under Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954).