Iran completes last tests on home-made radar-evading missiles

Iran completes last tests on home-made radar-evading missiles

2011-07-07 01:17:39 GMT+7 (ICT)

TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) -- The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday announced that the second and last test on three radar-evading missiles was successfully completed, the Fars news agency reported.

The recent missile drills codenamed Payambar-e Azam 6 (The Great Messenger) were a success after mobile naval targets in international waters were hit by three hi-tech and radar-evading missiles.

"In the second and last phase, three advanced and radar-evading missiles from the Khalij-e-Fars (Persian Gulf) and Tondar (Thunder) class, which are smart and also optimized, were fired at the specified mobile naval targets," said IRGC spokesman Colonel Asqar Qelichkhani.

All the equipment and missiles were developed and manufactured by Iranian experts through home-made technologies. The missile drills lasted two days and began last Monday.

The exercises were staged by the IRGC Aerospace Force with the objective of testing missiles capable of being hidden from the enemy and using the element of surprise against the target.

In the first phase of the drills, the Tondar and Persian Gulf missiles hit ground-based targets while they were launched at moving targets at sea during the second phase. In late June, Iran conducted another series of tests for the third generation Fateh-110 missiles.

IRGC also test-fired fourteen missiles during the second day of the June exercises. The operation consisted of firing nine ground-to-ground Zelzal missiles and five Shahab class missiles.

Brigadier General Hajizadeh said that Iran's missile manufacturing technology was capable of making missiles with a range of over 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), noting that there were U.S. military bases in the between 120 (75 miles) to 700 kilometers (435 miles) away from Iran.

The General remarked that the missiles pose no threat to European countries as the only enemies of Iran are Israel and the United States. He added that Iranian forces had already shot down several U.S. drone planes in the area.

In mid-June, Iran successfully tested a new home-made air defense system named Mersad which is equipped with sophisticated radar signal processing technology, an advanced launcher, and electronic targeting and guidance systems.

In April, Iran tested test-fired two mid-range Hawk missiles (Shahin) capable of tracing and targeting aircraft at low and medium altitudes to defend Iran's sensitive nuclear facilities.

In January, Iran unveiled a new air defense plan, designed by the Air Defense Base. Officials said the Iranian Army would produce the tools, weapons and equipment that will be required to implement the plan during the five-year period.

Iran launched its arms development program during the 1980-88 armed conflict with Iraq. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own jet fighters and armored vehicles as well as radar-avoiding missiles and other high-tech weapons.

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