Iran's deputy defense minister says the country is currently among the
world’s top five producers of anti-armor missiles,
while enjoying a vast capacity for manufacturing Cruise missiles and other defense hardware.
“The Islamic Iran currently stands among the world’s top five producers of anti-armor
missiles,” Brigadier General Qassem Taqizadeh said while addressing a ceremony in Tehran on Monday.
“At the same time, we have attained a very high capacity with regard to manufacturing
various kinds of satellites, Cruise missiles and other types of military equipment,” he added.
The top military official noted that Iran's defense industry was totally dependent on other
countries before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but that trend changed after the revolution and the
country now enjoys a high place in the world with regard to development of its military industries.
He pointed to Iran's progress in the fields of manufacturing
precision-guided missiles and smart air defense systems,
saying that the domestically-built Bavar-373 missile defense system,
which has a range of 120 kilometers and can reach an altitude of 27 kilometers, is one of the most
important defense achievements of the country after the victory of the Islamic Revolution.
Iran unveiled the state-of-the-art surface-to-air Bavar-373 missile defense system,
designed and manufactured by the country's experts, in August 2019.
It is a mobile missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy incoming hostile targets.
The system employs missiles that have a maximum range of 300 kilometers.
The system is capable of simultaneously detecting up to 300 targets,
tracking 60 targets at once and engaging six targets at a time.
Iran has repeatedly said its military might poses no threat to other countries,
and that its defense doctrine is based on deterrence.
Also in his remarks, the Iranian defense official said the country
had no place in space technology before the Islamic Revolution,
adding, "We are currently among the world’s top eight countries in the field of space technology."
Head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) Morteza Barari said on Saturday the
country is preparing to launch its new domestically-developed scientific
observation satellite in the “coming days.”
Barari told AFP that the manufacture of the Zafar
(Victory) satellite "began three years ago with the participation of 80 Iranian scientists."
The 113-kilogram satellite will be launched by a Simorgh carrier 530 kilometers (329 miles)
above the Earth, where it will make 15 orbits daily, said Berari.
Iran downs 'intruding foreign' drone over Persian Gulf coast.
Iran’s Army has shot down an unidentified drone that was violating Iran’s airspace
near the port city of Mahshahr in the southwestern province of Khuzestan on the Persian Gulf coast.
Commander of the Iranian Army’s Air Defense Force Brigadier General Alireza Sabahi Fard
said the intruding unmanned aerial vehicle was brought down early Friday before it could reach
"sensitive areas" thanks to the precision of Iran’s domestically-produced air defense system.
"This decisive move and the firing of a missile were a reaction to the
intrusion by a foreign drone into our country's airspace," he added.
The senior military commander did not specify which country the drone belongs to
but emphasized that Iran has repeatedly warned that it is fully prepared to give
a firm response to any violation of its airspace.
Meanwhile, governor of Khuzestan Gholam Reza Shariati told the Islamic Republic News Agency
(IRNA) that the wreckage of the aircraft has been recovered and is being investigated.
He emphasized that the downed drone "definitely belonged to
a foreign country" and said the results of investigations would be announced later on.
In June and in an episode of a similar nature, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps
(IRGC) shot down an American spy drone in the country’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan.
In a statement, the IRGC said the US-made Global Hawk surveillance
drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region — which sits in
the central district of Jask County — after the aircraft violated the Iranian airspace.
Bavar-373 uses phased array radar for tracking aerodynamic targets and
ballistic missiles in medium to long ranges, mounted on the ZAFAR heavy
truck. The radar system of the BAVAR 373 can detect targets at a maximum range of 260 km,
can track 300 targets, and engage simultaneously 6 aerial targets.
According to information published in the Iranian weapons export catalog, the AD-200 is an air
defense missile system designed to intercept aerial targets at long-range and long-altitude.
The air defense system is able to be used in all-weather conditions and can engage
simultaneously six targets with 12 missiles. The AD-200 missile can destroy a wide range
of aerial targets as aircraft, helicopters, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), and cruise missiles.