The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Lieutenant Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami has said that his organization now has a domestically produced missile defense system that is more sophisticated than the Russian S-300 air defense units Iran has in the past tried to acquire. He declared that it is, "An air defense system more advanced than what they didn't supply to us due to their strategic interests."
He said this system will not be displayed to the media or the general public but will instead for now "remain confidential." (Ground Report, June 1)
Iran had in 2007 signed an $800 million contract with Russia to buy five S-300 missile defines systems. However in 2010 the Russians refused to fulfill its side of the agreement and expanded sanctions the UN Security Council imposed on Iran in that year. Iran accordingly filed a $4 billion lawsuit with Russia in the international arbitration court in Geneva. Which still has to be examined (Fars News, May 31)
Salami went as far as to claim that these missiles have "pinpoint precision capability when fired at mobile targets. This might be impossible in terms of science, but it is true and, in addition to us, only the Russians might possess this technology and even the Americans do not have it."
