Alwaght- Iran defense minister said on Saturday the Islamic Republic will unveil a new fighter jet next week and continue developing missile capabilities as a top priority.
“We will present a plane on National Defense Industry Day, and people will see it fly, and the equipment designed for it,” Fars news agency cited Brigadier General Amir Hatami as saying. Iran celebrates National Defense Industry Day on Aug. 22.
“Our top priority has been development of our missile program. We are in a good position in this field, but we need to develop it,” he added.
Iran’s navy also announced on Saturday that it has mounted a locally built advanced defensive weapons system on one of its warships for the first time, as tensions mount with the US military in the Gulf.
Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said on Saturday that “coastal and sea testing of the short range defense Kamand system were concluded successfully, and said this system was mounted ... on a warship and will be mounted on a second ship soon,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
Iran has developed a large domestic arms industry despite US-led sanction and embargoes imposed on the country that have barred it from importing many weapons.
Tehran also is set to reveal domestic version of the Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile system, dubbed Bavar 373, by the end of the current Iranian year, namely by 20 March, 2019.
Iran's official news agency IRNA, cited deputy defense minister for international affairs Brigadier Mohammad Ahadi as saying that Bavar 373 is more advanced that its Russian Version.
The Bavar-373 is made completely in Iran and some of its parts are different from those of S-300, and the Islamic Republic wants to use it alongside the Russian S-300 system which it received in 2016.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the development of the missile system, after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev banned armed sales to the country.
As a result Iran developed Bavar 373 as an alternative to the Russian S-300 which Tehran claims is able to track over 100 targets, just like the Russian system but with a higher targeting capability.
Russia’s sale of S-300 missiles to Iran has a bumpy history. Russia was committed to deliver the systems to Iran under a USD-800-million deal in 2007. Moscow, however, refused to deliver the systems to Tehran in 2010 under the pretext that the agreement was covered by the fourth round of the United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
Following Moscow’s refusal to deliver the systems, Tehran filed a complaint against the relevant Russian arms firm with the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva.
In April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree, paving the way for the long-overdue delivery of the missile defense system to Iran.
