Iran Test-Fires 4th Generation of Most Precise Home-Made Missile

(FNA)- Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi announced on Saturday that the country has successfully test-fired the fourth generation of high-precision Fateh-110 missiles.

"The fourth generation of high-precision Fateh-110 missiles with a range of over 300km was test-fired by the defense ministry's aerospace industries organization," Vahidi told reporters in Tehran today.

He said that the new missiles can hit and destroy both land and sea targets, enemy concentration points, command centers, missile sites, ammunition dumps, radars and other targets with 100 percent precision.

Iran successfully test-fired the third generation of Fateh-110 missiles in August 2010.

The Fateh-110 is a short-range, road-mobile, solid-propellant, high-precision ballistic missile with advanced navigation and control systems.

The Iranian defense ministry has made great achievements in designing and producing missiles, including the surface-to-surface solid-fuel Sejjil missiles, the long-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile which has a range of up to 2,000 km, and Zelzal and Fateh missiles.

Iran has been pushing an arms development program in recent years in a bid to reach self-sufficiency. Tehran launched its arms development program during the 1980-88 Iraqi imposed war on Iran to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own jet fighters and armored vehicles as well as radar-avoiding missiles and other high-tech weapons.

Yet, 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