Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

On Monday, a facility destined for mass production of a new air-defense system was inaugurated in Iran, IRNA news agency reported.

Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi participated in the ceremony.

He said at the opening that the new system titled Herz (protector) 9 has been manufactured domestically, and this complex system will be mass-produced from now on.

Vahidi added that the short-range air defense system is able to spot targets automatically on low altitude, and said that the system is also very mobile.

The minister underscored that the Herz 9 system has a preparation time of less than 2 minutes.

Last Tuesday, the Iranian defense ministry announced that Iran plans to unveil five new defensive achievements in coming days.

Also, a senior Iranian military commander announced last month that the country would unveil a home-made long-range air-defense missile system similar to the Russian S-300 in the near future.

"This system, dubbed as Bavar (belief) 373, is being developed in the country and will be officially unveiled soon," Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army's Self-Sufficiency Jihad Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri said.

He noted that Bavar-373 missile defense system has reached the production stage and its subsystems have been already tested.

Earlier this year, senior military officials announced that Iran was testing the subsystems of Bavar 373 missile defense system.

Commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli said then that "laboratory tests are underway on subsystems of the long-range Bavar 373 air-defense system".

The Iranian Armed Forces have recently test-fired different types of newly-developed missiles and torpedoes and tested a large number of its home-made weapons, tools and equipments, including submarines, military ships, artillery, choppers, aircraft, UAVs and air defense and electronic systems, during massive military drills.

Also, Iran recently has unveiled its latest indigenous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a reconnaissance and combat drone dubbed as Hamaseh.

High altitude and long flight range are two other distinguishing features of the new Iranian UAV.

Iran has made important breakthroughs in its defense sector in recent years and attained self-sufficiency in producing important military equipment and systems.

Besides, Iran has unveiled its first domestically developed minesweeping system.

Iran is now among a few countries possessing the technology to defuse and clear naval mines, the Iranian commander said on the sidelines of the ongoing minesweeping drill in the country's southern waters where the new system was launched.