Iranian Top Brass Hail Indigenous S-300 Missile Defense System

For years now Iran has publicized its efforts to build a credible reverse-engineered S-300, also known by its NATO designation SA-10 Grumble. The S-300 is one of the most advanced anti-air and anti-missile systems in the world and is used by several former Eastern Bloc countries and the People’s Republic of China. Capable of tracking multiple inbound targets, the S-300 is a comprehensive defense system that can deter and repel the kind of air campaigns post-Cold War NATO is wont to engage in.

For this reason, the Russian-made S-300 is a hot export item. So far, other countries who are in the process of acquiring their own include Algeria and Venezuela. As for Iran? The deal should’ve gone through in the previous decade, except both official and unofficial reasons interrupted it permanently.

Since then, Iran’s defense ministry used the S-300 fiasco a long-running series in their propaganda. (No use calling it by another name.) Iran is one of the few countries today that actively showcases its domestic weapons development and the S-300 is no exception. Last week, Fars News Agency quoted two senior commanders who were expressing their confidence in the new S-300. However, this turned out to be a completely different air defense system that involved the broad collaboration of Iranian state-owned companies and universities.

According to Colonel Mohammad Hossein Shamkali and Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli, the Bavar-373 is an improvement over its Russian analog. The pair did not bother with details and going by their official statements, little else suggests how the Bavar is superior to the S-300, although there can be parallels in how both are deployed and operated.