Monday, December 31, 2012

Iran Tests Ra’ad Air Defense System During Naval Drills


Iran's navy said today it test-fired a range of weapons during ongoing “Valayat 91” maneuvers near the Strait of Hormuz. Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Rastgari said the Iranian-made air defense system Ra’ad (“Thunder”) was among the weapons tested, along with various torpedoes and underwater and surface-to-surface rockets as well as anti-ship missiles. (IRNA, 31 December)
The Raad system was on show during a military parade in Tehran in September for the first time. It is reportedly designed to confront fighter jets, cruise missiles, smart bombs, helicopters and drones. Iran said the system fires missiles with a range of 30 miles, capable of hitting targets at 75,000 feet.
The “Valayat 91” naval drills began on Friday and ends on Wednesday. To view related photos, please click here, here and here.
Photo credit: A Ra’ad (“Thunder”) air defense system with Taer-2 missiles displayed during a military parade in Tehran. 21 September 2012. (IRNA/AP)

9 comments:

mat said...

IRAN is unlike Arabs. The more the sanctions and threats, the more powerful, stronger and greater IRAN would really be. The more the military drills and practices, the more perfect the nation would really make. It has just entered the 34th. Happy New You!

Anonymous said...

Happy New and More Years, for the Islamic Republic of Iran.

A-F

Anonymous said...

Iran Payendebad. This system is more mobile than other Iranian SAM systems and can be operated from naval vessels as well.

According to IRGC Air Defense Unit, the highly-advanced home-made Raad air defense system is equipped with "Taer" [Bird] missiles, which can trace and hit targets 50km in distance and 75,000f in altitude.
A senior commander of the IRGC announced that "the newly unveiled Raad air defense system has been developed to target aggressive US planes."
"The system has been built in a bid to confront US aircraft and can hit targets 50km in distance and 75,000 feet in altitude," Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh stressed.

Iranian officials said it is "designed to confront fighter jets, cruise missiles, smart bombs, helicopters and drones." It appears to be more advanced that the numerous SAM systems Iran already fields they include SA-2, HQ2B Sayyed 1 & 2, SA-5, SA-17, HAWK and its Iranian derivates, SA-6, TOR1, BUK,Pantsyr S1 (Syria has over 50 batteries that brough down the Turkish RF-4E), Chinese FM-80 (HQ-7) Crotale short -range SAM systems and more advanced FM-90 medium altitude, Rapier, Tigercat, Stingers and Iranian made clones, SA-16 Igla, RBS-70, Misagh 1 and 2, S-200 and an upcoming version of S-300 being developed in Iran. The Iranians also are reported to have North Korean S 75 and S 125 systems and 6 batteries of Belarusian S-300PT supposedly purchased in 2009.

In May 2007 Iran was reported to have purchased at least 10 Pantsyr S-1E combined gun/SAM systems from Russia via Syria. The Pantsyr system is extremely potent with similar anti-missile capability to the Tor-M1, but with more missiles (12 ready to fire vs 8) and two 30mm auto-cannons. The deadly effectiveness of the Pantsyr was on display when the most advanced version of Turkish ELINT RF4E Phantom armed with latest US ECM pods was easily shot down by Syrian crews, giving NATO a serious headache and pause for thought against military intervention in Syria. Now Russian has deployed the S-400 on Turkish border and S-300 at Latakia making any foreign air intrusion suicidal.

Iranian air defences also boast over 6000 automated radar guided cannons, linked to over 2000 SAM sites and an integrated national fibre-optic early detection grid with advanced radars like the Kolchuga passive sensor ESM system that can detect airborne targets over 1000 kms away. Iran also has a growing ELINT and UAV (drone warfare) capabilities which were on display in downing or capturing several advanced US and Zionist drones.

It is no coincidence that Iran is untouchable despite daily US/Zionist rants and no nation in the near or foreseeable future has the capability to tangle with Iran.

Mark Pyruz said...

Similar to Buk-M2EK w/9M317 type missiles using wheeled chassis shared w/TOR-M1T. But then, we have yet to see photo or video evidence of launch during Velayat-91 and whatever variant configuration they may or may not be utilizing.

Anonymous said...

LOL!

Anonymous said...

Belarus supplied the parts and blueprints to cover their tracks as regards the UN arms embargo against Iran.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mark. I was thinking the same that this new RAAD (Iran names too many RAADs,LOL)looks BUK based and the transporters are similar. Anyway, this is a good addition for the growing Iranian SAM arsenal. Keep up the FACTUAL postings on Iranian military developments as it dispels a lot of US/Zionist propaganda. Iran is no pushover and that is for sure.

Anonymous said...

Officially it has been said fro some time now that the delivery of the S-300 was cancelled, and that they were never delivered. Though Iran has indeed aquired the S-300 through clandestine sources presumably Belarus (probably not the ones that were supposed to be sent from Russia), but they are more likely to be from the Belarussian inventory. These batteries has been used as the basis for the Bavar-373 SAM for quite some time now. Iranian main objective is to reverse engineer all the parts/electronics/components so that it can be manufactured cost effectively on home turf. This is what makes the Bavar-373 project possible.

Anonymous said...

You are correct. Just yesterday a senior military official announced that Iran is now testing the subsystems of Bavar (Belief) 373 missile defense system - the Iranian version of the sophisticated S-300 long-range air-defense missile system which will be fully operational in a few months. It is no secret that Iran is now acknowledged to have the S-300 and this has included a lot of reverse engineering and technology transfer.