In superior quantities. And that's what the Americans feared, not Iran's air force.
Also the timeline is slightly different than that. Fateh-110 has been in service since 2002, and this has always been much more accurate than Saddam's SCUD's.
Moreover, the US regime got bogged down in Iraq. There was no way they'd invade Iran before 2007-2008, having their plate full with Iraq up until that moment and by then Iran was fielding impressive types of BM's including upgrades such as the Shahab-3C.
the question is why instead of attacking Iraq they didn't attack Iran , Iraq was defanged and even could not threaten Bahrain any more. you say it was fear , I say Iran didn't have anything fearful at the time.
fateh-110 was indeed more precise at the time than scud , but the first generation still had a cep above 100m and it was short range , it could not reach any American base in region. some other calculation made American not to attack Iran at the time.
Iran was many magnitudes more powerful than Iraq in 2003. Iraq had just been battered by 12 years of an extreme sanctions regime - without Iran's vast domestic industry to compensate for it, had had its key infrastructures periodically bombed during the same period, and its entire military capabilities were an open book to the USA after more than a decade of intrusive inspections.
Therefore, only a fool would have chosen to go for Iran prior to Iraq. The idea was to steamroll nations one by one, Iran being the big prize. Having hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq simultaneously was meant to encircle Iran. As the motto of American forces went: "Real men go to Tehran". And it was not just a figure of speech or a hollow propagandistic slogan, but the reflection of a very real political agenda.
Iran was slated to be next after Iraq. Her asymmetric defence doctrine, including missiles and network of allies (which contributed to jeopardizing American plans in Iraq) caused the Washington neocons to hold back. Not any sort of a classic military tool in Iran's possession.
That's why.
we still only had short range missiles , we had no useful radar , no useful air defense , we didn't have any meaningful armor. at the time the only difference between Iran and Iraq was we had some weapon program at its infancy , Iraq didn't have those programs, but USA did attack Iraq that was no threat , but didn't attack Iran that was no threat and don't talk about asymmetrical this and that . our asymmetrical capabilities then were very limited
no
Not at a politically (if economically) bearable cost, even to the most radical warmongering USA administrations. They never thought they could make it.
as if war in Iraq , Libya , Afghanistan , made anybody bat his/her eye. as if in the west , anybody cried for the people who died in those countries or Vietnam or Korea.
your argument is only applicable in places that there is one human right not our human right and your human right.
have you forget Lebanon in 2006 , every one in west condemned Hezbollah for 60 Israeli civilian dead while they killed 2 Israeli soldier for each civilian
on the other hand have you heard anybody ask Israel why you killed 5 Lebanese civilian for each Hezbollah fighter you killed?
no sir your logic is not applicable in this world.
Scenarii like these represent a red herring deflecting from the gist.
Those incoming aircraft would face multiple limitations to the conduct of their mission stemming from Iran's IADS. A good portion of them would get shot down.
Since game-changing high value assets in Iran enjoy multilayered redundant AD coverage and are thus particularly well protected from such a limited raiding party, whatever damage the aggressors may succeed to inflict would be so negligible that it would do nothing in averting the inevitable aftermath, namely vital support infrastructure of enemy air power coming under sustained, continuous fire and making follow-on operations impossible in required sortie rates, while enemy air defences would be neutralized so that hundreds of UAV's and cruise missiles can finish the job.
no you are wrong on that as i said agm-88 will lock on those air defense asset at a range beyond the range of 3rd of-khordad or 15th of khordad . even without e-warfare and with using it the range of the system will be reduced to the range of E/O system which is around 75km.
and what you consider high value asset , the first wave of attack is designed to be against what really matter which is radars and air defense system, air planes, ships and ..... known missile bases , who care about Natanz or Fordoo or some power planet , they can be attacked in next phase when air superiority achieved then they attack again against the missile bases and make sure that you can't fire enough missiles . also now they can go after facilities like natanz or fordo or steel industries . but be assured it won't happen in first week.
and unlike what you think we can't magically fire missiles at will , it take time to use them