The Saker: Tehran’s decision to allow Russia to use the Hamedan airbase will greatly facilitate the operations of the Russian Aerospace Forces against Daesh. First, using Hamedan, as opposed to using airfields in southern Russia, will greatly reduce the flight time to targets in Syria, allow the Russian aircraft to use a more fuel consuming mission profiles and to carry heavier weapon loads. No less important is the fact that using Hamedan will greatly complicate the US/NATO efforts to warn their “good terrorist” allies about an incoming Russian airstrikes: it will be harder for the US to detect Russian aircraft and when they do, they will have less time to warn their proxies on the ground. Furthermore, Hamedan is located in a very safe and well protected part of Iran which would be far safer to operate from than Khmeimim in Syria (which is located 1000km from Russia but only 50km from the Turkish border). I would say that Hamedan is an *ideal* location to operate from for the Russian Aerospace Forces.