Alwaght- Iran has unveiled a set of defense facilities during the ceremony held to mark the National Defense Industry Day in the Iranian capital of Tehran.


The ceremony was attended by the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the Defense Minister Brigadier General Hussein Dehghan.


President Rouhani opened his address by thanking the personnel of what he branded the �key and influential " industry, referring to the Islamic Republic's defense industry that has seen.






The president said: �during the past 12 years the superpowers accused us of trying to make the weapons of mass destruction. But we joined the international conventions and allowed the international experts to visit out military sites and industries. But they couldn't prove that we were striving after WMDs. Our enemies' accusations were false."


"We managed to prove to the world that if the Leader of the Islamic Revolution issued a fatwa that producing and stockpiling the WMDs is illegal we can follow his fatwa. We are not a double-faced nation, and wouldn't say something and do something else in practice," continued President Rouhani.


Rouhani also said that Iran�s military capabilities were not aimed at the Muslim and neighboring countries, adding that Tehran�s efforts for defense capabilities were for the advantage of the Muslim world.


The Defense Minister Brigadier General Hussein Dehghan has unveiled a couple of new, home-made defense facilities that included a turbojet engine as well as a missile shield system fully developed at home by the Iranian defense experts.






[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Turbojet engine, dubbed as Ouj[/caption]



The defense minister said "in terms of missiles industry we achieved whatever we aimed at during the past few years. We now can design and produce missile with different ranges. We have diversified their controlling systems to take on the electronic warfare, and we designed their navigation systems in a way to assure the best precision of striking."


Brigadier General Dehghan added that they took long steps and doubled and even tripled range of missiles already produced.


"We added to the speed of the missiles, and in near future we would produce supersonic sea cruise missiles," the defense minister of Iran maintained.


He said that the defense industry had good relations with the academic community in terms of designing and producing defense facilities.


"We now work with 3,150 companies across the country. As many as 370 of them are technology-based companies, and over 370 of them own industries of high capabilities," he continued.




He then talked about specifications of first home-made turbojet engine branded Ouj, saying that the engine's operating altitude reached 50,000 feet, as it contained a variety of systems that allow it great performance in different conditions. He added that the new engine could run on different aircraft by a maximum takeoff weight of 10 tons.

He noted that Iran is now among the eight countries that own the technology for designing and manufacturing these engines.





Bavar-373: A rival to Russia S300 missile system


The defense minister along with the president also unveiled the long-range Bavar-373 home-made missile defense system during Tehran ceremony.


Visiting the Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO) at the ministry of defense on the occasion of National Defense Industry on August 21, President Rouhani has viewed various parts of the long-range missile defense system.


Bavar-373 which the officials said is a home-made rival to the Russian S300 air defense system has been designed and constructed by the Iranian experts at AIO in collaboration with Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base as well as scientific and research centers of the country.




President Rouhani (R) and Defense Minister Dehghan (L) standing before Bavar-373 missile defense system



The Iranian defense officials say that Bavar-373 outperforms the Russian S300 missile system as it can track 100 targets simultaneously, just like the Russian system, but with higher targeting capabilities.


Iran started working on Bavar-373 project in 2007 after Russia declined to deliver S300 air defense systems to the Islamic Republic.


In 2009 Tehran has showed off a pre-production model of Bavar-373 air defense system, but now it is putting on show for the first time an operational version of the system.


The Islamic Republic has been manufacturing its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, boats, submarines, radars, and fighter jets since 1992.


By Al Waght