Iran Improves Precision of Missiles
TEHRAN (FNA)- The precision targeting of Iran's ballistic missiles has been improved to have a margin of error near zero now, Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan announced on Wednesday.
“The guidance systems of (the missiles delivered to the IRGC) today enjoy the capability of striking the targets with full precision and they have a margin of error below 5 meters,” Dehqan said on the sidelines of a ceremony held to mark the mass-delivery of different ballistic missiles, including Qadr H, Qiam, Fateh 110 and Khalij-e Fars (Persian Gulf) missiles, as well as the Mersad air defense system to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base.
He said that the radar systems of the country’s ballistic missiles have been designed in a way that they can evade enemy radar systems, leaving the hotile forces unable to trace or intercept them.
“And the Qiam and Fateh missiles which were supplied to the Armed Forces today are among such missiles,” Dehqan said.
In relevant remarks in November, Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Brigadier General Hossein Salami said the precision targeting of IRGC's ballistic missiles has been improved to have a margin of error near zero now.
“Our situation has improved now because our ballistic missiles margin of error (in precision targeting) is near zero now,” General Salami said in a ceremony held in Tehran at the time.
Also in 2013, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iranian experts at the IRGC Aerospace research center have increased the precision capability of the 'Khalij-e Fars' supersonic ballistic missile to a maximum margin of error of 8.5 meters.
Hajizadeh said the late commander and head of the IRGC missile research center, Martyr Major General Tehrani Moqaddam, played a major role in the designing and production of the Khalij-e Fars Missile.
"When in its second test the Khalij-e Fars missile hit a moving vessel with 30m precision, we felt to have made a great success," Hajizadeh said in June.
"When we explained the achievement to the Supreme Leader, His Excellency voiced pleasure in the increased precision of the missile, but demanded us to increase its precision capability to less than 10-15 meters," he added.
"Less than 6 months later, our experts improved the precision capability of this missile to less than 8.5m," Gen. Hajizadeh continued.
"And when the Khalij-e Fars (Persian Gulf) missile came into operation in the IRGC Navy, the countdown started for the trans-regional countries to end the mission of their warships," the IRGC Aerospace commander stressed.
The supersonic projectile, which carries a 650-kilogram payload, is smart and immune to interception, and features high-precision systems.
The Khalij-e Fars supersonic ballistic missile is the most advanced and most important missile of the IRGC Navy.
The distinctive feature of the missile lies in its supersonic speed and trajectory. While other missiles mostly traverse at subsonic speeds and in cruise style, the Khalij-e Fars moves vertically after launch, traverses at supersonic speeds, finds the target through a smart program, locks on the target and hit it.
The range of the solid-fuel missile is 300km and it can be fired from triple launchers.
The missile could successfully hit a mobile target one-tenth of an aircraft carrier in its early tests.
In early 2011, Iran started the mass-production of the Khalij-e Fars anti-ship missile which is designed to destroy targets and hostile forces at sea.
Iran Equips Qadr H, Qiam Ballistic Missiles with MRV Payloads
TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian Defense Ministry has equipped its Qadr H and Qiam ballistic missiles with its newly developed Multiple Reentry Vehicle (MRV) payloads, a military hi-tech owned only by a handful of the world states.
The two missiles are capable of carrying different types of ‘Blast’ and ‘MRV’ payloads, and can destroy a wide range of targets. The new version of Qadr H and Qiam can be launched from mobile platforms or silos in different positions and can escape missile defense shields due to their radar-evading capability.
Qadr is a 2000km-range, liquid-fuel and ballistic missile which can reach territories as far as Israel. Qiam is also a new type of surface to surface and ballistic missile of Iran.
A Multiple Reentry Vehicle payload for a ballistic missile deploys multiple warheads in a pattern against a single target. (As opposed to Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle, which deploys multiple warheads against multiple targets.) The advantage of an MRV over a single warhead is that the damage produced in the center of the pattern is far greater than the damage possible from any single warhead in the MRV cluster, this makes for an efficient area attack weapon. Also, the sheer number of Warheads make interception by Anti-ballistic missiles unlikely.
Improved warhead designs allow smaller warheads for a given yield, while better electronics and guidance systems allowed greater accuracy. As a result MIRV technology has proven more attractive than MRV for advanced nations. Because of the larger amount of nuclear material consumed by MRVs and MIRVs, single warhead missiles are more attractive for nations with less advanced technology. The United States deployed an MRV payload on the Polaris A-3. The Soviet Union deployed MRVs on the SS-9 Mod 4 ICBM. Refer to atmospheric reentry for more details.
Iran announced on February 10 that it had successfully tested two new missiles, including a laser-guided surface-to-surface and air-to-surface missile and a new generation of long-range ballistic missiles carrying Multiple Reentry Vehicle payloads.
The missiles were test-fired in a ceremony on the eve of the 35th anniversary of the victory of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to mark the occassion.
Speaking during the ceremony, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan noted Iran's newly developed ballistic missile with MRV payload, and said it has been designed and produced for destroying enemy’s military hardware and all types of enemy military equipment.
“Evading enemy’s anti-missile defense systems, the capability of destroying massive targets and destroying multiple targets are specifications of this missile,” the Iranian defense minister said, but did not name the new weapon.
A few hours later on the same day, President Rouhani congratulated the Supreme Leader, the nation and the military forces on the giant achievement.
Tehran launched an arms development program during the 1980-88 Iraqi imposed war on Iran to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and fighter planes.
Yet, Iranian officials have always stressed that the country's military and arms programs serve defensive purposes and should not be perceived as a threat to any other country.
