Iran unveils new surface-to-air missile, radars
Following number of incident in which Islamic Republic claims to have downed Israeli drown, country's air defense chief says new missiles can 'shoot down any hostile target.'
Air defense chief Gen. Farzad Esmaili says the missile will enable Iranian forces to "shoot down any hostile target," even at high altitudes.
The report came after recent weeks have seen a number of reported incidents in which alleged Israeli drone were downed in Iran, with another reportedly crashing in Iraq.
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Iran launched a homegrown defense industry in 1992 that produces light and heavy weapons ranging from mortars to tanks and submarines. It has surface-to-surface missiles with a range of about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), enough to reach Israel and US military bases in the region.
The Iranian air defense chief said the Talash-3, or Endeavor-3 missile was successfully test-fired recently. Esmaili's speech was broadcast on state TV Tuesday.
The general also inaugurated two radar systems - Arash-2, tasked with detecting miniature drones at a distance of 150 kilometers (93 miles), and also Kayhan, said to be capable of detecting cruise missiles and drones.
Tehran regularly announces military advances that cannot be independently verified.
Last Thursday Hezbollah-affiliated Al Maydeen news channel reported that an Israeli-made Hermes drone crashed near the Baghdad airport area. Representatives of the US embassy in Iraq arrived on the scene and collected the pieces of the broken aircraft, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
The incident was preceded by another incident on Sunday, in which Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it shot down a purported Israeli drone near the country's uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, some 240 kilometers (150 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.
Last week, the official IRNA news agency reported that Iran has produced a new generation of short-range marine missiles and aerial drones.
The report said the Ghadir missile, with a range of 100 kilometers (62 miles), is designed to destroy marine targets. It did not give a range for the Nasr-e Basir cruise missile, but said it could "operate in silence," without elaborating.
Iran has unveiled two new drones, the high-altitude Karrar-4 and the Mohajer-4. The latter can be used to generate maps for both military and civilian purposes, IRNA said.
The report said President Hassan Rouhani attended a ceremony marking the inauguration.
The week before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the visiting head of the UN nuclear watchdog that Tehran will not discuss its long-range missile program as part of talks aimed at resolving a decade-long nuclear dispute, official media reported.
UN nuclear agency chief Yukiya Amano said Sunday's visit to Tehran was useful and that he was very glad to hear a firm commitment from Iran to resolve all outstanding issues through cooperation between the two sides.
Amano's trip came ahead of an Aug. 25 deadline for Iran to provide information relevant to the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) inquiry into what it calls the possible military dimensions of the country's disputed nuclear program.
"Iran's missile power is not negotiable in any level under any pretext," Rouhani told Amano, the official IRNA news service reported.
Reuters and AFP contributed to this report
