Iran brings 'Mersad' missile on stream

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=123003§ionid=351020101


Iran says its first domestically-built air defense system, which is said to be more powerful than the US-made Hawk missile, is ready to become operational.

Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Sunday that the anti-aircraft missile, dubbed Mersad (Ambush), features cutting-edge technology that makes it able to “destroy modern aircrafts at low and medium altitudes.”

Mersad is also equipped with sophisticated radar signal processing technology, an advanced launcher, and contains exclusive electronic equipment for guidance and target acquisition.

“The state-of-the-art technology used in Mersad links it to other anti-aircraft batteries and provides it with the unique ability to combat electronic warfare," he continued, adding that the dynamic system features capabilities that are superior than those in the US-made Hawk missile, which Iran purchased in the 1970s.

Vahidi announced that the country has begun mass-production of the medium-range missile and plans to deliver a sizeable number to the armed forces by the end of the year.

The production of Mersad, according to Vahidi, marks a technical breakthrough in Iran's defense capabilities and proves that the country's armed forces have achieved high levels of self-sufficiency.

Russia says Iran's security concerns legitimate

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=118040§ionid=351020104


As the US is lobbying with the West to impose a fresh round of sanctions on Iran's nuclear program, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calls on Western states to take Iran's security concerns seriously.

"Iran has legitimate security concerns. There is no doubt about them because Iran has been attacked by other countries in recent history but has never attacked another country," the Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Lavrov as speaking at the Munich security conference.

He called on the international community to find a "technical and diplomatic solution" to the proposed nuclear fuel swap with Tehran.

Last month, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — China, Russia, France, Britain and the US — plus Germany (P5+1) met in New York but failed to agree on a new round of sanctions as Russia and China called for patience and restraint in dealing with Iran.

Since then the US has been lobbying veto-wielding China and Russia to consent to more sanctions against Iran, which is already under three rounds of UNSC sanctions over its nuclear work.

The US and its allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military ends through its nuclear energy program. Iran denies the allegation, saying that it needs nuclear energy to produce electricity to meet the country's growing demand.

The agreement proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would see Iran ship its low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing. The fuel would then be returned for use in the Tehran medical reactor, which produces treatments for cancer.

Lavrov underlined that Iran's nuclear standoff with the West cannot be resolved without plans to tackle crises in the Middle East including Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

Iran starts mass-producing 2 new missiles

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=118011&sectionid=351020101

Iran has launched production lines for two new missiles as a part of its plans to boost defensive capabilities against any possible attack.

Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi on Saturday inaugurated the production line for an anti-armor missile Toofan-5 and an anti-helicopter missile Qaem.

"By the mass production and delivery of these modern weapons to the armed forces, the country's defense capabilities will increase both in ground and aerial war," the minister said.

The Toofan-5, which is among the most advanced of anti-armor missiles, is equipped with two warheads and can destroy armored vehicles, tanks and personnel carriers, Vahidi said.

The Qaem missile is also of a class of semi-heavy guided missiles and can destroy low-altitude aerial targets that fly at low speed. Being laser guided, the Qaem missile is also resistant to electronic warfare, Vahidi pointed out.

'Iranian weapon ends Apache copters' air supremacy'

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117711§ionid=351020101


A senior Iranian military official says Iran has developed a special weapon that can bring down Apache helicopters.

Col. Nasser Arab-Beigi, the director of the self-sufficiency organization of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), told the Fars news agency on Tuesday that the “special weapon” can also target advanced tanks.

He noted that the new weapon will put an end to the battlefield supremacy of the United States' Apache helicopters.

“The enemy should not assume that if it attacks Iran, its Apache helicopters will perform as satisfactorily as they do in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Arab-Beigi stated.

He noted that the IRGC self-sufficiency organization has focused its research on the enemies' threats, adding that the organization closely studies the enemies' capabilities and singles out those that could be a threat to Iran.

Nasser-Beigi said that the organization then establishes research teams to develop the weapons necessary to fend off the threats.

After test failure, US warns Iran over defensive missiles

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117644§ionid=351020104


Amid failure of the US long-range ballistic missile test over the Pacific Ocean, the Pentagon warns Iran continue to pursue long-range ballistic missiles.

The Pentagon released a report that described the intermediate and shorter-range missiles of Iran and North Korea as " threats" to US forces, allies and partners.

On Sunday, the US military fired a ballistic missile at a US Army site at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Island and minutes later launched a ground-based interceptor missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in an attempt to shoot down the ballistic missile.

However, the sea-based X-band radar "did not perform as expected" in the test, the MDA said in a statement.

The US Air Force says both missiles performed well during the launch and the flight phases but the system's sea-based radar fell short of expectations.

Iran has repeatedly announced that its missiles are defensive and aimed at increasing the country's deterrence capability with regard to mounting war threats mainly by the US and Israel over its nuclear program.

The test comes as the US has reportedly begun beefing up its military presence and war paraphernalia thousands of miles away from the American soil near the Iranian coast in addition to imposing new sanctions on the Tehran government.

Unnamed US military officials said that Washington has taken silent steps to increase the capability of land-based Patriot missiles on the territory of some Arab states in the Persian Gulf region.

After a recent wave of developments in the Middle East that strongly imply preparations for a possible new military conflict in the region, Israel has allegedly increased the scope of its undercover operations in the region, particularly against Lebanon, Iran, Syria and the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas.

For years Israeli politicians have masterminded a wave of undercover operations and terror plots in numerous countries, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Switzerland, and the US.

In their most recent remarks Israeli officials have threatened Lebanon and Iran with 'inevitable confrontation' and 'heavy measures.'

Much of Israel's espionage operations have lately been focused on the Tehran government, largely because of Iran's uranium enrichment activities, which Tel Aviv has been seeking to portray as a serious threat.

Tel Aviv, which is reported to have an arsenal of 200 nuclear warheads itself, accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons and routinely threatens to reduce the country's enrichment sites to rubble.

This is while Iran, unlike Israel, is a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has opened its enrichment facilities to UN inspection.