Iran’s first indigenous long-range air defense missile system has passed all of its initial tests, a senior military officer said.
The deputy commander of Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base, General Abolfazl Sepehrirad, told Tasnim news on Saturday, January 6 that the Bavar-373 air defense missile system has successfully completed all of its initial tests, marking the latest step toward the goal of making the system operational before the end of the Persian year in March.
Sepehrirad also said that training on the Russian S-300 system is underway in Iran.
In September 2017, the base’s commander, Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, said that Bavar-373 will be delivered to the base and be fully operational by March, Press TV reported. Esmaili said that all Bavar-373 sub-system tests were complete and missile tests had been conducted.
Esmaili said that the system “is made completely in Iran and some of its parts are different from those of S-300,” but that Iran wants to use the Bavar-373 alongside the Russian S-300 system it received in July 2016.
Iran began to design the Bavar-373 system after Russia suspended delivery in 2010 of at least five S-300s under a 2007 contract. The first images of the system were released by the Iranian presidency in August 2016.
The system uses up to three different missiles to hit targets at various altitudes. Iran’s defense minister Hossein Dehghan said in 2016 that it is designed to intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft and drones. “We did not intend to make an Iranian version of the S-300 – we wanted to build an Iranian system, and we built it,” Dehghan said.
According to Janes, Bavar-373 is “clearly a unique Iranian system that appears to reflect extensive investment in its ability to develop phased array radars.”