Sat Dec 20, 2014
Iran Developing Radar-Evading Missiles
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930929000548

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said
his country is now the fourth missile power in the world and is working on
plans to develop radar-evading missiles.

"Iran ranks fourth among the world missile powers after the US, Russia and
China," General Dehqan said on Saturday.

He said Iran has increased the range of its missiles in reaction to enemy's
possible threats, but it is now "trying to increase the precision of our
missiles and their endurance, and (also) make them radar-evading".

General Dehqan further pointed to the ongoing Iran-Group 5+1 (the US,
Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) talks and the US efforts to
include Iran's missile program in the negotiations with the powers, and
said, "We are merely negotiating with the G5+1 over the nuclear issue and
nothing other than the nuclear issue is and will be on the agenda."

The Iranian defense minister reiterated that the missile program is related
to Iran's defense capability and any relevant decision about it can and is
only made by Iran.

"We have basically not accepted the inclusion of our missile program in the
nuclear talks at any time…," General Dehqan added.

On Thursday, Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps
(IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami underlined that Iran's missile power
is a major deterrent to enemies' military attacks.

"We can target and hit the enemy's aircraft-carriers with our supersonic
missiles," General Salami said in Kurdistan province, Western Iran.

Earlier this month, General Salami said Iran's missile power prevents
practice of military attacks by the enemies, specially the US.

He pointed to Iran's military prowess, and said, "Today the Islamic Republic
of Iran’s missile power is among the first ten world powers and this
capability has been achieved without seeking the major world powers’
assistance."

The Iranian officials have always stressed that the country's military and
arms programs serve defensive purposes and should not be perceived as a
threat to any other country.

In June, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force General Amir Ali Hajizadeh
announced that the country's experts at the IRGC Aerospace research center
have increased the precision capability of the 'Persian Gulf' supersonic
ballistic missile to 8.5 meters.

"When in its second test the Persian Gulf missile hit a moving vessel with
30m precision, we felt to have made a great success," Hajizadeh said.

"When we explained the achievement to the Supreme Leader, His Excellency
voiced pleasure in the increased precision of the missile, but demanded us
to increase its precision capability to less than 10-15 meters," he added.

"Less than 6 months later, our experts improved the precision capability of
this missile to less than 8.5m," Gen. Hajizadeh continued.

"And when the Persian Gulf missile came into operation in the IRGC Navy, the
countdown started for the trans-regional countries to end the mission of
their warships," the IRGC Aerospace commander stressed.

The supersonic projectile, which carries a 650-kilogram payload, is smart
and immune to interception, and features high-precision systems.

The Persian Gulf supersonic ballistic missile is the most advanced and most
important missile of the IRGC Navy.

The distinctive feature of the missile lies in its supersonic speed and
trajectory. While other missiles mostly traverse at subsonic speeds and in
cruise style, the Persian Gulf moves vertically after launch, traverses at
supersonic speeds, finds the target through a smart program, locks on the
target and hit it.

The range of the solid-fuel missile is 300km and it can be fired from triple
launchers.