Iran Improves Precision-Targeting of Ballistic Missiles

(FNA)- The precision targeting of Iran's ballistic missiles has been improved to have a margin of error near zero now, Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan announced on Wednesday.

“The guidance systems of (the missiles delivered to the IRGC) today enjoy the capability of striking the targets with full precision and they have a margin of error below 5 meters,” Dehqan said on the sidelines of a ceremony held to mark the mass-delivery of different ballistic missiles, including Qadr H, Qiam, Fateh 110 and Khalij-e Fars (Persian Gulf) missiles, as well as the Mersad air defense system to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base.

He said that the radar systems of the country’s ballistic missiles have been designed in a way that they can evade enemy radar systems, leaving the hotile forces unable to trace or intercept them.

“And the Qiam and Fateh missiles which were supplied to the Armed Forces today are among such missiles,” Dehqan said.

In relevant remarks in November, Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Brigadier General Hossein Salami said the precision targeting of IRGC's ballistic missiles has been improved to have a margin of error near zero now.

“Our situation has improved now because our ballistic missiles margin of error (in precision targeting) is near zero now,” General Salami said in a ceremony held in Tehran at the time.

Also in 2013, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iranian experts at the IRGC Aerospace research center have increased the precision capability of the 'Khalij-e Fars' supersonic ballistic missile to a maximum margin of error of 8.5 meters.

Hajizadeh said the late commander and head of the IRGC missile research center, Martyr Major General Tehrani Moqaddam, played a major role in the designing and production of the Khalij-e Fars Missile.

"When in its second test the Khalij-e Fars missile hit a moving vessel with 30m precision, we felt to have made a great success," Hajizadeh said in June.

"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 Khalij-e Fars (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 Khalij-e Fars 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 Khalij-e Fars 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.

The missile could successfully hit a mobile target one-tenth of an aircraft carrier in its early tests.

In early 2011, Iran started the mass-production of the Khalij-e Fars anti-ship missile which is designed to destroy targets and hostile forces at sea.