Defence Minister Hatami with next-generation short-range ballistic missile in Tehran last week. IMAGE: AFP
Iran is going to unveil a new fighter jet next week and to continue the development of new missiles, Defence Minister Amir Hatami said on August 18.
“We will present a plane on National Defence Industry Day [August 22], and people will see it fly, and the equipment designed for it,” he said, according to FARS NEWS.
“Our top priority has been development of our missile programme. We are in a good position in this field, but we need to develop it”.
On the same day, the Iranian Navy announced that it has for the first time installed a locally built weapons system Kamand on one of its warships.
Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi reiterated that coastal and sea testing of the short range defense Kamand system were concluded successfully, and said this system was mounted on a warship and will be mounted on a second ship soon,” Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported. The system is designed to shred incoming anti-ship missiles thus providing an additional layer of the defense to the warship.
These remarks and actions openly are defying new US sanctions aimed at curbing Tehran’s missile programme and regional influence.
Despite a significant sanction pressure, Iran has been able to set up a large domestic weapons industry producing various arms, equipment, vehicles, missiles and even relatively sophisticated weapons systems.
While Iran remains vulnarable in a conventional conflict against some major military power, it has found options to provide an asymmetric answer to the existing military threats.
