Iran begins making anti-cruise missile shield
By IANSTuesday, May 4, 2010
TEHRAN - Iran began building a powerful missile defence system which can fire 4,000 shots per minute and destroy cruise missiles heading towards the country, Iranian defence ministry announced Tuesday.
“Mesbah 1 (Lantern) air-defence system is designed to counter air attacks, defferent kind of airplanes, cruise missiles, choppers and other air threats in low altitudes,” Iranian Defence Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said.
“The defence system has been designed on the basis of increasing the volume of fire and controlling it by a reliable system,” Vahidi added.
He said the new short-range air defence system, which is able to fire 4,000 shots per minute, has a high destruction capacity and targeting precision involving less number of crew in comparison with the existing defence artilleries.
The Mesbah 1 missile shield is also capable of tracing and intercepting unmanned arial vehicles (UAVs), Vahidi was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
“The system has been produced to confront military threats flying at low altitudes such as cruise missiles,” the minister said adding that the system will officially start operation in the near future.
He also said that his ministry is working on different short-range, mid-range and long-range air defence systems.
