IRGC Commander: Iran Turns Sanctions into Opportunity

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami said that the advanced defense achievements, weapons and military equipment produced by Iranian experts prove that the country has turned the US sanctions into opportunity.

“We have managed to create an opportunity from the sanctions that entails the high-speed scientific and technological progresses that we are witnessing in the field of defense power,” General Salami said, addressing the inauguration ceremony of a permanent exhibition of the IRGC Aerospace Force’s strategic achievements in Tehran on Sunday.

“We never pause and we never stop production of power and we have achieved the techniques and formula of developing science and technology to defend our country’s vital interests and values and have found out the equations of independence,” he added.

The IRGC Aerospace Force inaugurated a permanent exhibition of its strategic achievements in Tehran on Sunday.

^{IRGC Aerospace Force exhibition}

The exhibition dubbed as the National Aerospace Park was inaugurated in the presence of General Salami, IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

Different products of the IRGC Aerospace Force in areas of the missile power, air defense, drones and air and space operations have been put on display in the exhibition.

Parts of the US-Made MQ-4C Triton (also referred to as advanced Global Hawk) that was shot down over Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf last year have been assembled and gone on display at the exhibition.

Late in April, the IRGC successfully launched and placed Iran’s first military satellite named Nour 1 (Light 1) into the orbit.

The IRGC fired the satellite aboard Qassed satellite carrier during an operation that was staged in Dasht-e Kavir, Iran’s sprawling Central desert.

The Launcher Qassed is a three-stage launcher using compound solid-liquid fuel.

The satellite was placed into the orbit 425km above Earth’s surface.

The satellite was sent to the space on the anniversary of the IRGC establishment (April 22, 1979).

Also, in July, the IRGC fired ballistic missiles buried deep into the ground during the second day of massive ‘Great Prophet-14’ drills in the Southern parts of the country.

General Hajizadeh said at the time that Iran is the first country in the world that has fired camouflaged ballistic missiles buried deep into the ground during the military drills.

 “It was the first time in the world that ballistic missiles were fired from beneath soil,” General Hajizadeh told reporters on the sidelines of the second day of massive ‘Great Prophet-14’ drills in the Southern parts of the country.

He added that the missiles were launched without using platforms and equipment, noting that the hidden missiles tear up the ground from where they are buried, fly and hit the target.