Commander Sees US Officials’ Anti-Iran Allegations as Nonsense

“If the enemy makes a mistake our roaring missiles will hit their targets,” General Hajizadeh told reporters on the sidelines of massive military drills dubbed ‘Modafe’an Harim-e Aseman Velayat’ (Defenders of the Velayat Skies) in Semnan province in Northern Iran on Saturday.

He pointed to the preparedness of the Iranian Armed Forces, and said, “Knowing the capabilities of our Armed Forces, I am to ensure you that foreign threats cannot do us any harm.”

General Hajizadeh pointed to the US officials’ remarks about Iran’s missile tests, and said Washington officials are only after “a pretext to show their animosity towards us; we are making round-the-clock efforts to defend our country’s security and if the enemy dares to make any mistake our roaring missiles will land on them.”

He also referred to the massive military drills in Semnan province, and said, “The main phase of the military drills of the aerospace air defense command started today after its successful accomplishment in the preliminary phase.”

He said that the military drills were held in an area of 35,000 square kilometers.

“All the equipment deployed in the air defense drills, including missile systems, radar systems, command control centers and electronic warfare were indigenous and made by Iranian experts and engineers,” General Hajizadeh added.

The IRGC Aerospace Force kicked off massive military drills dubbed ‘Modafe’an Harim-e Aseman Velayat’ (Defenders of the Velayat Skies) in Semnan province in Northern Iran on Saturday.

The new stage of the IRGC’s Aerospace drills kicked off after a five-day preliminary phase.

The massive drills are being held in an area of 35,000 square kilometers, and are aimed at demonstrating Iran’s power, intelligence command, and defense readiness to counter any threats.

Different types of missile and radar systems, which are designed and manufactured by Iranian experts and engineers with diverse ranges, were used during the exercises.

The missile systems used in the drills included Khordad-III missile system with a range of 75 kilometers and capability of targeting several targets at the same time, Tabas missile system with a range of 60 kilometers also capable of hitting multiple enemy targets and Sayyad-II missile system with range of 75 kilometers and capable of confronting the enemy’s electronic warfare.

The radar systems also used in the massive drills included long-range Qadir radar system with a tracking range of up to 1,100 kilometers, Matla al-Fajr radar system with a range of 500 kilometers and capable of tracking different kinds of aircraft and drones and Kavosh radar system with a range of 150 kilometers and capable of tracking air threats at low altitudes, including cruise missiles and different aircraft.

In relevant remarks in late January, General Hajizadeh announced that his forces will take part in a massive military drill in the near future.

“The main aim of the upcoming war game is to display IRGC’s capabilities in producing the him-made military equipment,” General Hajizadeh said, addressing a ceremony in the Northeastern city of Sabzevar.

The senior IRGC commander reiterated that all the equipment to be used in the war game, including all defensive systems, radars, command centers, and ground-to-air missile equipment, are designed and manufactured by Iranian scientists.

In relevant remarks in mid-December, General Hajizadeh underscored Iran’s self-sufficiency in different defensive fields, and said the country will powerfully continue its progress in manufacturing different missiles.

No matter what the enemies do and even if they try to impose restrictions on Iran, “we will not stop enhancement of our capability, knowledge and production in defense fields, specially the missile industry”, Hajizadeh said, addressing Iranian university officials and professors in Tehran.

Stressing the important role played by universities and academic centers in increasing Iran’s capabilities, he said, “Thanks God, today, we have gained self-sufficiency in different defense fields.”

General Hajizadeh had also announced earlier this month that the country has increased the number of its ballistic missiles, while increasing their precision-striking capability.

“In addition to enhancing the precision-striking power and quality of ballistic missiles, the Iranian authorities and experts have used innovative and shortcut methods to produce inexpensive missiles and today, we are witnessing an increase in production (of ballistic missiles),” General Hajizadeh said in Tehran.

Noting that Iran has settled its problems and become self-sufficient in the field of defense and military activities, specially in strategic fields, he said that the country’s experts have been able to boost missiles’ precision-striking power to the utmost.

His remarks came after Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan underlined that his country sees no limit for the range of the ballistic missiles that it is developing.

“We don’t have any limit for the range of liquid or solid-fueled ballistic missiles,” Dehqan said in a meeting in the Central city of Isfahan in August.

He underlined the indigenous nature of most Iranian weapons and military equipment, and said, “90 percent of the country’s defense systems have reached an acceptable standard and enjoy competitive quality compared with the weapons of advanced countries; production of the national individual weapons and efforts to improve the quality and precision-striking power of ballistic missiles are among the defense ministry’s achievements in the defense field.”

General Dehqan added that Iranian experts have also taken long strides in building satellites, satellite carriers, missile launchpads and research work in defense areas.

His remarks came as the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) fired 2 home-made ‘Qadr H’ ballistic missiles from the Eastern Alborz Mountains at a target in Iran’s Southeastern Makran seashore some 1400km away in March.

The missiles were fired on the sidelines of the main stage of the IRGC drills in Central Iran and various parts of the country.

One missile had a message written on it that said in Hebrew: “Israel should be wiped off the Earth”.

Qadr is a 2000km-range, liquid-fuel and ballistic missile which can reach territories as far as Israel.

The missile can carry different types of ‘Blast’ and ‘MRV’ (Multiple Reentry Vehicle) payloads to destroy a range of targets. The new version of Qadr H can be launched from mobile platforms or silos in different positions and can escape missile defense shields due to their radar-evading capability.

A Multiple Reentry Vehicle payload for a ballistic missile deploys multiple warheads in a pattern against a single target. (As opposed to Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle, which deploys multiple warheads against multiple targets.) The advantage of an MRV over a single warhead is that the damage produced in the center of the pattern is far greater than the damage possible from any single warhead in the MRV cluster, this makes for an efficient area attack weapon. Also, the sheer number of Warheads make interception by Anti-ballistic missiles unlikely.

Improved warhead designs allow smaller warheads for a given yield, while better electronics and guidance systems allowed greater accuracy. As a result MIRV technology has proven more attractive than MRV for advanced nations. Because of the larger amount of nuclear material consumed by MRVs and MIRVs, single warhead missiles are more attractive for nations with less advanced technology. The United States deployed an MRV payload on the Polaris A-3. The Soviet Union deployed MRVs on the SS-9 Mod 4 ICBM.