Air Defense Commander Says Iran Will Not Reverse Engineer Russian S-300

Commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli announced that Tehran doesn’t intend to reverse engineer the sophisticated Russian S-300 missile defense system.
“S-300 is an operational system and doesn’t need reverse engineering,” Esmayeeli told FNA on Monday.

“Since the S-300 is a defensive and operational system, it will be deployed in specific spots and will not be reverse engineered,” he added.

Esmayeeli also underlined that Khatam ol-Anbia Defense Base’s experts have undergone the necessary trainings and are ready to work with the Russian missile defense shield.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin removed the ban on the delivery of the missile shield to Iran.

Following the announcement, Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said “the decree came as an interpretation of the will of the two countries’ political leaders to develop and promote cooperation in all fields”.

Meantime, Dehqan announced that the country would test the home-made version of the sophisticated Russian S-300 missile defense system, dubbed as Bavar (Belief) 373, before the end of the current Iranian year (that will ends March 19, 2016).

“… we expect to be able to test the production model of S-300 by the end of the current year,” he told reporters.

“Thank God, and thanks to the human, technical and industrial capacities that Iran has; it does have the necessary defense systems to guarantee its aerospace security,” the defense minister added.

In April, Iran displayed its Bavar 373 missile defense system during the military parades South of the capital.

Iran designed and developed its own version of the S-300 missile shield after the Russians shrugged off delivery of their advanced missile defense system to Iran on the pretext of the UN Security Council sanctions.

The Iranian version has superior features over the original Russian model as it enjoys increased mobility, agility and reduced launch-preparation time.