Iran unveils precision-guided missiles

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani warns all US bases in region are within range of an Iranian strike if war were to break out.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
Missiles and a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran (photo credit: NAZANIN TABATABAEE YAZDI/ TIMA VIA REUTERS)
Missiles and a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran
(photo credit: NAZANIN TABATABAEE YAZDI/ TIMA VIA REUTERS)
Iran has unveiled three new precision-guided missiles on Tuesday amid tensions between Iran and the US and European countries in the Strait of Hormuz. The air-to-air missiles revealed by Tehran are called the “Yasin” and the “Balaban,” as well as a new series of the “Qaem” missile, and were developed jointly by the Iranian Defense Ministry and Sa Iran (Iran Electronics Industries).
According to Iran’s Mehr News Agency, the Yasin is a smart guided missile with folding wings that can be fired from a range of 50 km. of its target from manned or unmanned aircraft.
The Balaban smart bomb is guided by hybrid inertial navigation system (INS)/Global Positioning System (GPS) guidance and sensors to boost its precision capabilities and is equipped with folding wings and can be mounted under an aircraft.
The Qaem optic smart bomb meanwhile is a heat-seeking missile equipped with heat and cylinder seekers that allow the bomb to hit within 50 cm. of a target.
Similar to the Balaban, it can be installed on various kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles as fighter jets and helicopters.
Iranian Defense Minister Brig.-Gen. Amir Hatami hailed their launch as “another significant achievement of power and dignity for the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“It shows that despite the viciousness and conspiracies of the Great Satan America and its mercenaries, the Defense Ministry will not hesitate for a moment to defend the Islamic republic and to expand security,” he was quoted by the Fars news agency as saying.
The three missiles were unveiled two days after Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brig.-Gen. Mehdi Rabbani was quoted by Fars as saying that the country’s missile was range was continuing to increase.
“For at least the next 10 years, no regional or trans-regional country is able to counter or fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran in ground warfare,” he claimed, adding that “our missile power also deters any regional and extra-regional acts of aggression, and the range of the missiles is also increasing constantly.”
Also on Tuesday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani warned that all US bases in the region are within range of an Iranian strike if any war were to break out.
“It may be the case that some regional countries and the Zionist regime have devised such plans [attacks] against Iran, but they know well that if they inflict any minor damage to Iran, they will receive our firm response as all US bases in the region will get stuck,” he said. “And if they have a little bit of rationale, they will not enter a war with Iran.”
Despite new US sanctions placed on Iran meant to pressure Tehran over its military activity in the Middle East and its ballistic missile program, Tehran is continuing to improve its missile arsenal, defending the program as being purely defensive.
The Islamic Republic possesses over a thousand short- and medium-range ballistic missiles and has the ability to proliferate weapons to countries and non-state actors such as Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel is concerned that Iran is not only trying to consolidate its grip in Syria where it could establish a forward base to attack Israel, but that it is trying to build advanced weapons factories in Syria and Lebanon to make GPS-guided missiles that could hit targets with greater accuracy.