All Targets Shot Down in Iran’s Air Defense Drill
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A spokesman for a large-scale air defense war game in Iran said all of the flying objects designed to mirror capabilities of hostile targets were brought down by homegrown missile systems on the first day of the exercise.
Speaking at a televised program on Monday, Rear Admiral Mousavi highlighted the main features of the ‘Velayat’ air defense war game, which began earlier in the day in a large zone covering around a third of the country’s area.
Units from the Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) have taken part in the joint military exercise.
According to the commander, the Iranian air defense missile systems could successfully detect all targets in the war game zone’s airspace, including various types of reconnaissance drones, bombers, suicide drones, and small flying objects.
The exercise was unique in terms of the number of mock hostile aircraft flown in the zone, diversity of the aircraft, and the number of shells and missiles fired in operation, the commander said.
On the first day of the war game, the Army fired three ‘Sayyad-2’ missiles paired with the ‘Talash’ homegrown missile system, which can hit medium and high-altitude targets.
In another operation, the IRGC Aerospace Force units employed ‘Khordad 3rd’ air defense missile system to shoot down dummy hostile aircraft over the sky of the drill zone.
Khordad 3rd enjoys state-of-the-art technologies suitable for electronic warfare. It can intercept 4 targets and fire 8 missiles simultaneously within a range of 50 km.
The drill involves tactics to employ command and control systems to detect, track and intercept hostile targets, conducting air defense operations in electronic warfare, using passive aerial detection systems as well as air-based air defense gear including manned and unmanned aircraft, and countering anti-radiation and cruise missiles.