09.21.12 years. A military parade was held in the Iranian capital in honor of the 32nd anniversary of the start of the war with Iraq and the so-called "Week of Sacred Defense". The parade was attended by representatives of various units of the IRGC and copies of standing and entering service military equipment. One of the representatives of the latest military equipment was the Ra'ad anti-aircraft missile system, which belongs to the class of medium-range air defense systems.
The Iranian air defense system, previously practically not "exposed" to the general public, is a development based on the Soviet-Russian air defense missile system "Buk-M2E". Both air defense systems are outwardly very similar not only to the launchers, but also to the missiles used. The first mention of the newest self-developed air defense system was announced by the commander of the IRGC, General M. A. Jafari on September 17, 2012. At a press conference, he briefly spoke about the characteristics of the new complex:
- the height of the struck air targets up to 27 kilometers;
- range of fire up to 50 kilometers.
The newest anti-aircraft missile system is based on a 6X6 chassis. It is very possible that a Belarusian-made MZKT-6922 chassis or its Iranian counterpart (based on obvious external signs) was used, in which there are certain structural changes in a number of elements.
On the chassis is a launcher with three guided anti-aircraft missiles (analogue 9M317E), which were previously supplied to Iran for the modernization of anti-aircraft missile systems "Kvadrat", which have several visible differences. Of the equipment, we note the lack of guidance and illumination of the target being hit by the radar complex.
The use of well-proven units of the Russian and Belarusian military-industrial complex (Buk-M2E, MZKT-6922, SAM 9M317E) when creating their own complex "Ra'ad" can be interpreted in different ways, for example:
- and that the Iranian designers are not able at this time to independently create such a complex;
- and that when using the complex in military conflicts, Iran will have a strong air defense argument, which will be able to successfully fulfill the assigned air defense missions;
- and about "unknown" military assistance from Belarus or Russia to the Iranian state.
Additional Information:
There was a video about the tests of the "Ra'ad" air defense system. SAM was launched at unmanned targets. And although the radar machine is not visible in the video, most likely it is the "own" development of the Slavic radar station.
