Iran is planning to produce its own version of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, Tehran\’s top air defense commander was quoted as saying by Iran\’s Fars News Agency.
Russia was originally contracted to supply Iran with the S-300 batteries, but the deal was cancelled, reportedly after Israel and other Western nations pressured Moscow.
Iran hopes to complete its version of the S-300, the Bavar 373, by the end of 2015, according to the commander of the Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base, Brig-Gen Farzad Esmayeeli.
"We hope to witness a very good system with higher capabilities than the S-300 in our air defense structure”, Fars quoted Esmayeeli as saying. He added that the launch of the Bavar 373 was part of Iran\’s 2010-2015 Five Year Development Plan.
One of the most advanced multi-target anti-aircraft missile systems in the world, the S-300 has a reported ability to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while engaging up to 12 at the same time.