“An air defense system more advanced than what they didn’t supply to us due to their strategic interests went on display in the IRGC’s recent exhibition,” Lieutenant Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami said in Tehran on Saturday, adding that the “missile system won’t be displayed to the media or the public as it should remain confidential for now.”
Lieutenant Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps announced on Saturday the development of a top secret missile defense shield said to be more powerful and accurate than the Russian S-300 long-range air-defense missile system.
“An air defense system more advanced than what they didn’t supply to us due to their strategic interests went on display in the IRGC’s recent exhibition,” Salami said in Tehran on Saturday, adding that the missile system won’t be displayed to the media or the public as it should “remain confidential” for now.
The article noted: “The IRGC Commander did not mention who exactlty he was referring to as ‘they’, but Russia is the only state which was due to supply Iran with a missile defense system, but refrained from doing so.”
The air defense system is just the latest achievement of the IRGC Aerospace Force which was “closed” to the public.
It was recently visited apparently by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei himself and a number of other senior level military commanders.
General Salami, a man highly respected in the Iranian military, further stressed that the IRGC’s ballistic missiles now enjoy “pinpoint precision capability when fired at mobile targets “, adding that in addition to us, only the Russians might possess this technology and not even the Americans do not have it”.
Generally speaking the S-300 is regarded as “one of the most potent anti-aircraft missile systems currently fielded.”
Its radars have the ability to simultaneously track up to multiple incoming targets while engaging specific others. The S-300 deployment time is roughly five minutes.
See video: World’s best Russian S-300 Air Defense System can out preform Patriot Missile system http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9PGW80oYRY
See video: Iranian and Russian officials obtain good results in S-300 air defense deal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_KFLoYxkr0
Source: Almaz S-300 – China’s “Offensive” Air Defense http://www.strategycenter.net/research/pubID.93/pub_detail.asp
The S-300 missiles are “sealed rounds” systems that require no maintenance over their lifetime.
An evolved version of the S-300 system is the S-400 (NATO reporting name SA-21 Growler), which entered limited service in 2004.
Numerous versions have since emerged over the years with different missiles, improved radars, better resistance to countermeasures, longer range and better capability against short-range ballistic missiles or targets flying at very low altitude – the Iranian system will probably be along the same line, but how exactly they “tweaked” their version remains a mystery .
See video: Iran’s Air Defense unveils indigenous missile system http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK4SYHRqVuE
We contacted a trusted source at the Pentagon who refused comment or speculation on this issue officially.
Unofficially however he would only comment “that there are land based versions and sea based versions of the S-300, with three main variations, “the S-300P , S-300V and S-300 F, each with its own imitations.
The S-3oo V for example, takes over an hour to set up and it had problems tracking targets below 500 m, for example.
The S-300F Fort M (Russian С-300ФМ, DoD designation SA-N-20) is a naval version of the system. It was introduced in 1990 and increased missile speed to approximately Mach 6 for a maximum target engagement speed of up to Mach 8.5. It increased the warhead size and was said to have increased its maximum engagement range yet again to 5–150 km (3–93 mi) as well as opening the altitude envelope to 10m-27 km (33–88500 ft).
The newer missile versions also introduced the ultimate ” track-via-missile guidance method and brought with it the ability to intercept short-range ballistic missiles, but much of all this still remains classified” – so he couldn’t really talks about it.
The S-300 V – NATO reporting name SA-12 Gladiator/Giant) varies from the other designs in the series. It was built by Antey rather not Almaz (source: S-300V/Antey 2500 (SA-12 ‘Gladiator/Giant’)”
Source: Jane’s Defense, 13 February 2008 (Retrieved 4 August 2008).
The V suffix stands for Voyska (ground forces).
He suggested that it was “designed to form the top tier army air defense system, providing a defense against ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and aircraft, replacing the SA-4 ‘Ganef’.”
The “GLADIATOR” missiles were also introduced and were said to have a maximum engagement range of around 75 km (47 mi) while the “GIANT” missiles, by contrast can engage targets out to 100 km (62 mi) and up to altitudes of around 32 km (100,000 ft). In both cases the warhead is around 150 kg (331 lb).
While it was created from the same project (hence the common S-300 designation) “different priorities resulted in a design quite different from the other versions.”
The S-300V system is carried on tracked MT-T transporters, which gives it better cross-country mobility than even the S-300Ps on 8 × 8 wheeled transporters.
It is also somewhat more distributed than the S-300P’s.
Our source suggested that he would be very interested if I could send him the link to the story, but couldn’t comment any further on it at this point.