Iran deploys new home-built long-range radar
Iran says it has deployed a new domestically built long-range radar system, signalling a strengthening of its air defences as it holds what may be the final days of talks on a nuclear deal with world powers.
Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) air defence force, unveiled the Ghadir phased-array radar in Ahwaz city in southwestern Khuzestan province near the Iraq border, state television said late on Saturday.
Iran says the Ghadir unit is designed and manufactured entirely inside the country and can detect a plane at 600 km (373 miles) and a ballistic missile at 1,100 km.
In comments suggesting the radar can also identify miniature unmanned drone aircraft, Esmaili was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying: "Discovering and tracking micro aerial vehicles (MAV) ... is one of the special qualities of the Ghadir radar system."
