The UAE‘s long-range AN/TPY-2 radar, integrated with the THAAD missile-defense system, can reportedly detect ballistic missiles at roughly 1,000 to 2,000 kilometers under optimal conditions. General air-surveillance radars like the Ground Master 400 typically track aircraft out to about 470 to 515 kilometers.
Patriot system radars, used for engagement and fire control, usually operate in the 150 to 300-plus kilometer range, depending on target type and altitude.
None of these radars can detect the launch or low-altitude flight of a small kamikaze drone originating in Iraq. That is a technical fact, not a matter of interpretation.
Even if the Emiratis possessed precise intelligence from Iraq about the exact time and location of the drone‘s launch, a highly unlikely scenario given the operational security of such attacks, a more fundamental question remains.
Why would Abu Dhabi not inform its Saudi neighbors that a hostile drone would be traversing at least 800 kilometers of the Saudi mainland, flying freely for up to five hours, without any reaction from Saudi air defenses? The absence of such notification is telling.
What can be determined with certainty is this: the drone attack was indeed carried out from the western border and over Saudi territory. And, there is no evidence – technical or otherwise – to support the claim that it was launched from Iraq.