Iran successfully test-fires new defence system

Iranian Defence Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan announced the successful test-firing of the country’s new air defense system capable of destroying different types of modern fighter jets and drones. “Talash (Struggle) is a mid-range and high-altitude air defense system used to confront the flying targets, including fighter jets and bombers, and is also capable of destroying different helicopters and drones,” Dehqan said in Tehran according to Fars News Agency on Saturday. “Talash defense system was designed and built to detect and intercept the targets of Sayyad (Hunter) 2 missile (the country's latest home-made missile system with high precision, range and destruction power) to protect the country’s vital and sensitive points against surprise air threats of hi-tech combat fighters,” he added. “Now that it has had successful tests, God willing, its production line will be launched in the near future,” Dehqan said. In relevant remarks in September, Commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli announced that Iran is mulling plans to develop its air defense systems based on the possible threats which might be posed to the country in the next five years. "Today, the air defense is moving forward concurrently with new threats and what is going on around us shows that we should make the air defense ready to confront the threats not only of the present time but of the next five years," Esmayeeli said in a ceremony in Tehran at the time. He downplayed the effects of the western sanctions on the progress of Iran's defense industry, and announced that Iran's air defense is implementing 15 operational projects now. Also in September, another senior Iranian commander underlined the country's high level of military deterrence, and said the country's air defense is making rapid progress in accordance with the advancements made in hit-tech enemy fighter jets. "The more advanced enemy fighters grow, the more sophisticated and advanced the Iranian air defense will be," Commander of the Eastern Zone of Iran's Air Defense Malek Ali Asadifar said in the Eastern city of Birjand.