Thursday, June 30, 2011

Great Prophet 6 Maneuvers (3) - Ghadir Radar

Ghadir radar system operational

From PressTV:

A top Iranian commander says the Ghadir radar system with a range of 1,100 kilometers in radius and a height of 300 kilometers has become operational in the country for the first time.

“The Ghadir radar has been designed and manufactured to discover air targets, radar-evading planes, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and satellites at low orbits,” Commander of the Aerospace Division of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Amir Ali Hajizadeh said on Wednesday, Fars news agency reported.

After the IRGC unveiled underground ballistic missile silos on the first day of the Great Prophet 6 military maneuvers on Monday, the Ghadir radar system also become operational, the commander went on to say.

Iran shows downed US drones to Russia

From Fars News Agency:

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh announced on Tuesday that Iran has allowed a number of Russian experts to see the several US drones the IRGC has shot down over the Persian Gulf in recent years.

"Russian experts asked to see the airplanes and we allowed them to see the shot-down drones as well as the reversely engineered models made by the IRGC," Hajizadeh told reporters.

Referring to the IRGC's defense and combat power in confrontations against US drones in the Persian Gulf, he said that the drones were shot down in free waters and also in those regions under the control of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Earlier this year, a senior Iranian military official had confirmed reports on the shooting down of several enemy drones over the Persian Gulf, and said Iran has targeted a large number of these pilotless planes during the last 7 years.

"We have experienced similar incidents many times in the past and there have even been drones belonging to the occupying Zionist regime (Israel), the United States and Britain which have been shot down in the Persian Gulf during the past 7 years," the senior military official told FNA in January.

Also in January 2007, the Iranian military troops shot down a spy plane of the US army when trying to cross Iran-Iraq borders in the Southwestern city of Dasht-e-Azadegan, Khuzestan province.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

From the technical specs provided by the Iranian military, this appears to be an upgraded version of Iran's existing KOLCHUGA radar operational since 2007. This antenna based device passively detects stealth planes 800-1000 Kms. Iran has also displayed a phased array radar during these exercises as well.

All hyperbole aside, Iran has made good adavances in military technology. Iran's upgraded Ghadir/ KOCHULGA antenna device is capable of passively detecting stealth planes 1000 Km away, making the billions of Dollars spent on stealth technology and the AWACS planes (600km detection range) utterly useless. In addition, being passive, it cannot be detected, so the targeted aircraft are unaware of detection until engaged by multiple layers of SAMS and interceptors. Iran's new national fibre-optic integrated AD grid would make its homeland defence formidable.

TLAM Strike said...

@Anonymous: The 1000 km range is against high altitude targets. Basically this system functions in a line of sight range + 25% (Due to the radar waves traveling with the curvature of the earth for a short distance. But causes incorrect returns at that range.)

Against an aircraft flying at 500 feet (high for a penetration mission) the range would really be about 30km. A supersonic target could cover that range in 88 seconds.