Iran Unveils Ballistic Missile , ”New Generation” Engines
IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK
TEHRAN – IRGC unveiled yesterday a short-range ballistic missile that they said can be powered by a “new generation” of engines designed to put satellites into orbit.
IRGC” Sepahnews website said the Raad-500 missile was equipped with new Zoheir engines made of composite materials lighter than on earlier steel models.
It also unveiled Salman engines made of the same materials but with a “movable nozzle” for the delivery of satellites into space.
The Raad was “a new generation missile that has half the weight of a Fateh-110 missile but with 200 kilometres more range,” it added.
The Fateh-110 is a ballistic ground-to-ground missile first unveiled in 2002. Its latest generation has a range of 300 kilometres (186 miles).
IRGC commander Major General Hossein Salami unveiled the missile and engines alongside IRGC aerospace chief Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh.
“The complicated achievements on the bleeding edge of global technology that were unveiled today are our key to entering space,” Salami said.
He further pointed to the IRGC aerospace new achievement regarding the mobile nozzles in orbital carrier rockets and said, “This a significant and sophisticated technology which can control the missile propulsion vector in space, it means that we can have maneuverability beyond the atmosphere. This is a great achievement which leads to a leap in missile technology.”
Achieving such technologies have paved the way for Iran to build light satellite carriers with solid propellant, manufacture surface-to-surface missiles with a small radar cross-sectional area, enhance the maneuverability of missiles to defeat missile defense systems, and reduce the costs and complexity of production of missiles.
The new technologies that made the missiles “cheaper, lighter, faster and more precise” could be applied to all of Iran’s missile classes, he added.
Referring to the special capacities of Ra’ad-500 and its composite engine, he said, “Although the mass of thunder missile is half of Fateh missile, it has a 200 Km increase in range and is also cheaper, lighter, more agile and more accurate. This technology is applicable to all our classes of missile”.
