Iran Successfully Tests New Long-Range Ballistic Missile

Local Editor

Iran has successfully test-fired a new precision-guided, long-range missile, state-run media reported on Sunday.

The Emad [Pillar] surface-to-surface missile, designed and built by Iranian experts, is the country's first long-range missile that can be precision-guided until it reaches its target, said Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan, Iran's defense minister.

"To follow our defense programs, we don't ask permission from anyone," he said, according to state-run news agency IRNA.

He also stated that Defense Ministry pursues a strategy based on developing and increasing the missile capabilities of the Iranian Armed Forces and enhancing the Islamic Republic's deterrent power.

"We do not ask for permission from anybody to increase our defense might and missile capability and are decisively following up our defense plans, particularly in the missile sector," Dehqan said, emphasizing that the manufacturing of Emad is an apparent example of such a strategy.

The new rocket is "capable of scrutinizing the targets and destroying them completely," IRNA reported.

The Iranian defense minister said Emad would be mass produced and delivered to missile units of the Iranian Armed Forces soon to significantly enhance their tactical and operational power.

Anthony Cordesman, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in October last year that the Emad was a variant of Iran's existing Shahab-3 long-range missile, "but with a maneuvering reentry vehicle to improve system accuracy and complicate missile defense."

The liquid-propelled rocket had a range of 1,700 kilometers [1,056 miles] and was accurate to within 500 meters [1,640 feet] of the target.

The rocket could carry a 750-kilogram [1,653-pound] payload and was scheduled for deployment sometime after 2016, he wrote.

The Shahab-3 is based on the Nodong, a North Korean missile, according to a paper by Michael Elleman, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a UK-based think tank.

Cordesman's report said Tehran has been steadily developing its missile technology, focusing in particular on improvements to guidance systems.

Its existing missiles systems had "poor accuracy and uncertain reliability," he wrote, giving them limited military effectiveness.

The improving missile arsenal gave Tehran "a longer range strike capability that its aging air force largely lacks," he wrote.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team