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Ra’ad (Thunder) Anti-Ship Missile |
Iran equipped its vessels and coastal defense units with Ghadir cruise missiles to reinforce defense measures in its territories and waters.
"Ghadir cruise missiles have been mounted on both Navy destroyers and missile-launching warships and they are also used as coast-to-sea missiles," Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told FNA on Monday.
He said that Ghadir missiles have already been supplied to the Navy, and explained that Ghadir is a surface-to-surface missile although it will most be used by coast to sea fire.
The Iranian Navy announced in June that it has mounted Nour (Light), Qader (Mighty) and long-range Qadr (Magnitude) missile systems on its newly overhauled and modernized destroyer named Bayandor.
Sayyari explained that Ghadir enjoys a longer range, a more destructive fire power and higher precision capability than Nour and Qader.
Sayyari made the remarks in a ceremony to launch the newly overhauled destroyer in Iran's territorial waters in the Southern port of Bandar Abbas.
Anti-ship Nour and Qader cruise missile systems are ultra-advanced and self-relying systems which have remarkably improved in radar, satellite, precision, range and navigation terms compared to their predecessors.
Sayyari also elaborated on other optimization measures adopted to overhaul and modernize the destroyer, and said "mount of 76-mm and 46-mm artilleries and some other special systems are among the other measures taken to renovate and modernize the destroyer".
"The 40-mm cannon mounted on the destroyer is also among advanced artilleries in air defense," he stressed.
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.
Update:
IRGC
Navy (IRGCN) has refitted its Tondar fast attack craft (FAC) with Qader
anti-ship missiles (AShM). Iran imported 10 Tondars from China in the mid-1990s.
They remain the largest combat vessels in the IRGCN's fleet. (HIS Jane’s 360, 10
April)
The Tondar FACs were originally armed with Chinese C-802 anti-ship missiles and later its Iranian-version Noor. The domestically produced Qaders are extended range C-802/3 variant, with a range of 200 km and GPS assisted. Qader went into production in 2011.
Qader, first produced as shore-based launchers, are being used on different platforms. They are now fitted on F-4 Phantom fighters as air-launched anti-ship cruise missiles, and on Kaman (Combattante II)-class FACs and Jamaran-class frigates.
File photo: Qader Anti-Ship Missile (IranMilitaryForum.net)
Update:
The Tondar FACs were originally armed with Chinese C-802 anti-ship missiles and later its Iranian-version Noor. The domestically produced Qaders are extended range C-802/3 variant, with a range of 200 km and GPS assisted. Qader went into production in 2011.
Qader, first produced as shore-based launchers, are being used on different platforms. They are now fitted on F-4 Phantom fighters as air-launched anti-ship cruise missiles, and on Kaman (Combattante II)-class FACs and Jamaran-class frigates.
File photo: Qader Anti-Ship Missile (IranMilitaryForum.net)
If you're going to build nuclear weapons, you're going to need a delivery system and missiles are best way since trying to use manned bombers or ships requires much more infrastructure, which is why most of your dictatorships take that route as the cheapest way to deliver weapons of mass destruction. I'm not reassured that Iran is boasting it has massive missile capability, even if it does all turn out to be hot air. Saddam certainly had enough to lob warheads at Israel and Khamenei lies awake at night envisioning similar feats with nuclear tipped warheads. What is really paradoxical is that Iran is making all these pronouncements, as well as seeking new uranium sources from Zimbabwe and spinning up 10,000 centrifuges for enriching it that you have to wonder why all this saber rattling at a time when Iran professes to want moderation and dialogue with new president Hassan Rouhani? The answer is simple: Iran really doesn't want open dialogue. It wants to buy time from harsh sanctions to provide relief to people hurt by the regime's policies and allow it to build its nuclear capability. To say Iran's ruling mullahs are disingenuous would be kind. Iran in fact has a long record of duplicity and this is no different. For anyone doubting this, you should check up on the long and loyal career of Rouhani at www.hassan-rouhani.info and see the real facts. Iran will never change unless the regime does.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, they're only playing for time.
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