Fourteen Russian spy satellites flew above a US military base in Saudi Arabia in March, just days before a major Iranian strike during the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic, according to a CNN investigation broadcast on Wednesday.

The March 27 attack on the Prince Sultan Air Base, involving at least one missile and several drones, wounded 12 US service members and damaged or destroyed key US military equipment, including a Boeing E-3 Sentry, an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) plane that can track aircraft and missiles from hundreds of kilometers away.

CNN cited unnamed US sources who said information from Russian satellites played an integral role in helping the Iranians carry out the high-precision strike.

While the network did not get access to the Russian satellite images, it did use orbital data that track satellites, with help from the European Space Agency’s Aurora Program and the American company Kayhan Space. The network showed imagery of the Russian satellite Cosmos 2573 flying over the Prince Sultan Air Base, along with 13 other Russian spy satellites, two days before the attack.

The Cosmos 2573 has detailed imaging capabilities, including synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, that can gather information even in cloudy conditions or darkness and can detect physical changes to high-value assets, CNN........

© The Times of Israel