Iran Successfully Tests New Indigenous Long-Range Radar System To Detect Drones, Missiles

Iran on Tuesday unveiled and successfully tested a new domestically produced long-range radar system, which the country claimed is capable of detecting small drones and ballistic missiles. The new radar system, dubbed Sepehr, or Sky, could provide the country’s air defense units with key information to help identify hostile targets far from its borders.

On Tuesday, the radar system successfully went through a last test, and the information gathered by the system during the test “was for the first time fed into the country's integrated radar and air defense network.” And, according to Brigadier General Shahrokh Shahram, the lieutenant commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base, the Sepehr has successfully passed all the tests it has been put through.

“The Sepehr radar system covers a range of over 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) and can detect stealth targets and micro UAVs at low, medium and high altitudes while it can also very easily identify and detect ballistic, semi-ballistic and cruise missiles,” Shahram was quoted by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency as saying.

Iran announced in August 2013 that it had finalized construction of space radars to detect the trajectories of satellite and space objects. Iranian authorities had also said at the time that the country is now using new “passive phased array radars” to detect stealth targets and cruise missiles.

Since 1992, Iran has strengthened its homegrown defense industry that produces both light and heavy weapons, including tanks, missiles, radars, submarines, unmanned aerial vehicles and fighter planes.

The country also has surface-to-surface missiles capable of hitting targets about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) away, which is enough to reach Israel and U.S. military bases in the region, The Associated Press, or AP reported.

However, according to Fars, Iranian officials have always maintained that the country’s artillery is for its own defense, and should not be considered a threat by other countries.