Iran successfully fires missiles during air defense exercise

TEHRAN,Nov.15(MNA) -- A number of domestically manufactured and upgraded missiles were successfully fired on the third day of a joint air defense exercise of the Iranian Armed Forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which started on Monday. The four-day military drill, entitled the Defenders of the Sky of Velayat 4, is being conducted in eastern Iran in an area covering 850,000 square kilometers with the participation of 8000 Iranian military forces. On Wednesday, the domestically reengineered Russian S-200 missile system fired a missile, which successfully hit a mock enemy drone. The commander of the Khatam-ol-Anbiya Air Defense Base told reporters on Wednesday the high-altitude surface-to-air S-200 missile system has been designed to target strategic aircraft and semi-ballistic missiles. Brigadier General Farzad Esmaeili added that the missile system can be used in the country’s integrated air defense network as an indigenous system to shoot at various targets at various altitudes. He also announced that the Rased 32 smart monitoring system will be unveiled during the war games, adding that the system will be used at the country’s sensitive areas and nuclear facilities. In addition, he said that experts at the Armed Forces have designed an advanced electronic surveillance system, named the Sayyad 40, which will be mass-produced in the near future and deployed in the country’s air defense sites. On the third day of the maneuvers, the domestically designed Qader missile system was also tested and fired a missile, which destroyed the designated target. The Qader missile system, which is equipped with a special electro-optical system and a laser rangefinder, can be deployed and launch missiles in less than 30 minutes. The domestically upgraded Ya Zahra 3 missile system was also tested and launched missiles. Later on the day, a medium-range Shalamche missile was fired from the Mersad missile system and hit an enemy mock drone. The Mersad missile system, which has been designed and manufactured by Iranian engineers, is equipped with sophisticated radar signal processing technology and an advanced launcher.