Long-range missile shield overcomes development bottleneck, army says; called more advanced than Russia’s S-300 battery
Iran’s chief air defense commander said that a homegrown air defense system based more advanced than Russia’s highly-regarded S-300 battery would come online in two years.
The highly anticipated Bavar 373 program — “belief” in Persian — has been hampered by setbacks, but on Saturday, Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli claimed that the troubles facing development had been solved and the anti-missile defense system would be completed by the end of 2015, Fars News Agency reported.
“We hope to witness a very good system with higher capabilities than the (Russian) S-300 in our air defense structure by the end of the (Development) Plan,” Esmayeeli said. “The indigenized system will be more powerful than the S-300 missile system.”
Last May it was announced that Iran would soon unveil a home-made long-range air-defense missile system similar to the Russian S-300.
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The deployment of S-300 batteries in Iran could provide a significant impediment to carrying out a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, a threat which forms the core of Israel’s deterrence policy.
In May, Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri said the Bavar-373 missile defense system had already reached the manufacturing stage and its subsystems had been already certified.
Full article: Iran says powerful air defense system to be ready in 2015 (The Times of Israel)
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