The first batch of S-300 air defense missile systems was delivered to Iran. This is what is confirmed to the main agencies of the country, the spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Hossein Ansari Jaber.
The contract for the supply of five S-300 systems was signed in the 2007 for a figure slightly lower than the 900 million dollars. Supply then frozen due to high sanctions by the United Nations against Iran. In the spring of last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the embargo on S-300 systems for Iran.
The S-300 is a defense system designed for tactical defense against broad-spectrum targets such as ballistic missiles, aircraft and helicopters. The details of the agreement have never been disclosed. The two countries have always talked about a supply for five systems (each S-300 should cost around 120 million dollars). Iran could therefore have also purchased at least one hundred 9M82M / 9M83M missiles. The missiles rely on an inertial system with half-way radio updates, while in the terminal phase on a semi-active radar.
In the coming hours we could evaluate, knowing the system delivered, the real Iranian capabilities. If it were, as it is believed, a "Favorit" S-300PMU-2 system, then the missile supply will concern the 48N6E2 version. Conjectures at the moment. S-300 are considered immune to most Western ECM countermeasures. Once online, they do not require maintenance for at least ten years. By August, the first Iranian regiment equipped with S-300 systems could enter service to cover possible targets.
Igor Korotchenko, editor of the magazine National defense ("National Defense", ed.) Of Moscow, describing a possible western air attack in an area protected by the S-300, he said: "dozens of aircraft destroyed and coffins covered with stars and stripes flags".
(photo: MoD Fed in Russia)
