Global General

Iran test-fires air defense system

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-04-18 15:39

TEHRAN - The Commander of the Khatam al- Anbiya Air Defense Base, General Farzad Esmaili, said that Iran successfully test-fired a new domestically-made air defense system, named Mersad, the local satellite Press TV reported on Monday.

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Esmaili said the Mersad air defense system, which was test- fired in an air defense base in the northern province of Semnan on Sunday, is capable of hitting targets up to 150 km away, said Press TV without further details.

On Saturday, Iran announced that it successfully test-fired another air-defense missile system dubbed Sayyad-2.

Its previous version Sayyad-1, which Iran had unveiled earlier, is a two-stage surface-to-air missile. Equipped with a 200 kg warhead and with a speed of 1,200 meters per second, it can not only be deployed to destroy the targets with low Radar Cross Section (RCS) at low and medium altitudes, but also be used in electronic warfare, local semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

Sayyad-2 is an upgraded version and enjoys higher precision, range and destruction power than its previous version, said Fars.

Iran has made considerable progress in the past decades over the development of medium and long-range missiles, and Teheran has reiterated that its missile capability is "a defensive tool against invasions."