Syria tests missiles against coastal attack

Syria's navy fired live missiles from ships and helicopters over the weekend, state media said on Sunday, in an exercise aiming at showcasing its ability to "defend Syria's shores against any possible aggression".

Syrian television aired video of a variety of missiles being fired from launchers on land and from ships and showed the Syrian Defence Minister Dawud Abdallah Rahijia in attendance.

"Naval Forces conducted an operational live fire exercise on Saturday, using missiles launched from the sea and coast, helicopters and missile boats, simulating a scenario of repelling a sudden attack from the sea," Syrian news agency SANA said, adding manoeuvres would continue for several days.

Opposition figures have been calling for a no-fly zone and NATO strikes against Syrian forces, similar to those carried out in Libya last year which enabled rebel ground forces to end the rule of Muammar Gaddafi.

But while President Bashar al-Assad has faced sanctions and international condemnation over his crackdown on dissent which has left thousands dead, major Western and Arab powers have shied away from the idea of direct military action.

Turkey has reinforced its border and scrambled fighter aircraft several times since Syria shot down a Turkish reconnaissance jet on June 22 over what Damascus said were Syrian territorial waters in the Mediterranean. Ankara said the incident occurred in international air space.

More than 30 people were killed on Sunday during a government bombardment and clashes between Syrian forces and Free Syrian Army rebels fighting to oust Assad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Activists reported heavy shelling in residential areas of Deir al-Zor city and in Deraa province, the birthplace of the revolt near the Jordanian border.

Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory, said that residents of al-Sharifa in the wider Deir al-Zor province said rebels had taken control of a tank looted in combat for the first time and were using it to attack army positions.

In recent weeks, rebels have become more and more brazen in their attacks, holding small areas of territory across the country and clashing with troops only a few miles from the presidential palace in Damascus.

‘Agni boosted missile technology’

India’s ability to develop missile technology indigenously has reached new heights with the development of Agni series of missiles, said Dr Tessy Thomas, director of the Agni-V programme at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Dr Thomas was attending a function organised by Union minister of state for power, K.C. Venugopal, in Alappuzha on Friday.

She told DC, “Indian defence research has proved its mettle developing missiles indigenously. Agni-V is an explicit example of Indian indigenous technology.”

“Agni-V has to undergo further tests to integrate with the military. The first stage has been completed with the successful launching on April 14. It has to undergo two more tests for the final certification.”

With the successful launching of the Agni series, developed countries and neighbouring nations have started to keep a close eye on our technology and achievements, she said.

No developed country barring Russia has taken the initiative for a joint discussion on defence research with India.

India’s latest achievements will help to raise our standing in international forums and that may pave the way for more support from developed nations, she said.

Dr Thomas, who joined DRDO in 1988, is one of a small number of Indian women defence scientists, though she says the numbers are growing.

Only five percent of the scientists at DRDO were women when she joined, and today 20 per cent of the scientists are women, she says. More women with great capabilities have shown interest in working in defence research.

“This is the time technologically. So the new generation has a big role to play in the field of defence research,” said the 49-year-old scientist.

Dr Thomas also said that no new mission has been declared.

Iranian Media - Iran Inaugurates Production Line of New Anti-Armor Missile System

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi on Saturday inaugurated the production line of a new home-made anti-armor missile system named 'Dehlaviyeh'.

            "The Dehlaviyeh missile is one of the most hi-tech anti-armor missiles designed for destroying different advanced tanks which are equipped with reactive armor," Vahidi said at the inauguration ceremony of the missile system.

He also reiterated that the missile has been equipped with a special guiding system (which is resistant to different types of enemy's electronic warfare), a warhead and a missile-launcher and a portable engine-propeller.

"The missile system has been designed in a way that it can hit both fix ground targets and mobile armored targets," Vahidi said.

Last August, the Iranian Defense Ministry started mass-production of 73-mm anti-armor rockets capable of piercing and destroying armored vehicles from a 1,300-meter distance.

"The weapon is mobile and due to its low weight, it can be carried by an individual trooper," Vahidi told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony held to launch the production line of the rocket at the time.

Tehran launched an arms development program during the 1980-88 Iraqi imposed war on Iran to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and fighter planes.

Yet, Iranian officials have always stressed that the country's military and arms programs serve defensive purposes and should not be perceived as a threat to any other country.

The Iranian Army recently test-fired different types of newly-developed missiles and torpedoes and tested a large number of its home-made weapons, tools and equipments, including submarines, military ships, artillery, choppers, aircraft, UAVs and air defense and electronic systems, in a series of massive military drills.

Defense analysts and military observers say that Iran's wargames and its advancements in weapons production have proved as a deterrent factor, specially at a time of heightened threats by the US.

The Mad Mullah’s Republic of Iran Propaganda - Iran tests "Khalij Fars" missiles as part of military drills

Iran tested its "Khalij Fars" missiles as part of the third day of "Great Prophet 7" military drills today, Fars reported.

Iran's IRGC continues its military drills today, which started on June 2.

Yesterday Iran's Revolutionary Guards tested the various range missiles (Shahab I, II and III, Zelzal, Fateh, Tondar, Qiyam) stationed in various locations across the country to bomb fake targets in country's Semnan and Lut deserts.

Hajizadeh said that on the third day of the drills, naval military maneuvers will take place in an area of Persian Gulf and the Hormuz Strait.

Today at the maneuvers, IRGC also tested jet fighters and unmanned aircrafts.

The "Great Prophet IV" land exercises were held in Iran in June-July of 2011. During those, Iran introduced missiles launched from an underground launcher and tested the Fateh-10 missile.

According to Tehran, the exercises were held solely to demonstrate the country's defense abilities under the slogan "peace and friendship."

Where is Iran’s Sajil missile?

Iran’s missile tests display old systems, raising questions about fate of the regime’s most-impressive missile.

Iran’s missile maneuvers on Tuesday were closely followed in Israel, although not because of what was tested, but rather due to what was missing.

Held as Western powers gathered in Istanbul for another round of talks with Iran over its nuclear program, the Great Prophet 7 exercise featured the launching of a Shahab 3 ballistic missile which is capable of reaching Israel, with a range of 1,300 kilometers. The shorter-range Shahab 1 and 2 were also tested.

Missing from the drill was Iran’s Sajil ballistic missile, which was last tested in 2009.

A two-stage missile, the Sajil was promoted as Iran’s most sophisticated missile system when it was first unveiled in 2008.

The Sajil’s use of solid fuel propellant also marked an impressive accomplishment for Iran in its efforts to improve the accuracy and range of its ballistic missiles.

“Its absence could mean a number of things, including the possibility that the Iranians have run into problems with the development of the Sajil and therefore decided to nix the program,” one Israeli missile expert said on Tuesday.

“It is possible that the Iranians have decided to instead focus their efforts on more advanced systems like intercontinental ballistic missiles.”

Yiftah Shapir, a missile expert from the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said the absence of the Sajil could be an indication that it is not yet operational, or that the Iranians prefer to retain the limited number they may have for a real conflict.

“They wouldn’t want to waste their best systems in an exercise,” he said.

In February, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that Iran was working on developing an ICBM with a range of 10,000 km. that would put the United States in reach of a potential attack.

Revolutionary Guards Deputy Commander Hossein Salami was quoted Tuesday as saying that the missile tests were in response to Iran’s enemies who talk of a “military option being on the table.”

“The main aim of this drill is to demonstrate the Iranian nation’s political resolve to defend vital values and national interests,” Salami said.

The Fars news agency said dozens of missiles had been aimed at simulated air bases, and that Iranian-built unmanned drones would be tested on Wednesday. Iran has previously threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz in response to increasingly harsh sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies.

Russia threatens to sell deadly missiles to Iran

Russia may scrap its ban on S-300 antiaircraft missile sales to Iran if Syrian President Bashar Assad is replaced, said Ruslan Pukhov, who heads a Russian defense think tank.

Then-President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree prohibiting the sale of Russian weapons, including S-300s, to Iran in 2010 after the United Nations imposed sanctions against the Islamic republic. Iran has sued Russia for breach of contract.

"The S-300 ban was a political decision and these systems are not actually subject to sanctions," Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, said in an interview Tuesday. "If the Syrian regime is changed by force or if Russia doesn't like the outcome" of a peaceful transition to a new government, "it most likely will respond by selling S-300s to Iran."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, along with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, France and China, endorsed a United Nations plan for political transition in Syria on Saturday. Lavrov said the road map doesn't imply Assad's ouster and Russia says it will continue to block efforts in the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Syria to force him out.

Assad's government is fighting a growing insurrection in which as many as 17,000 people have died in the last 16 months, according to non-governmental organizations. At least 114 people were killed in Syria Monday, the Local Coordination Committees in Syria said in an e-mail.

"The fall of the Syrian government would significantly increase the chances of a strike on Iran," said Pukhov, who also sits on a Defense Ministry advisory board. "Resuming S-300 shipments to Iran may be a very timely decision."

Western powers say the Persian Gulf nation is hiding a nuclear-weapons program, and the United States and Israel have declined to discount the possibility of military strikes against its atomic installations.

Due to the export ban on S-300 exports to Iran Russia lost about $1 billion dollars, according to Pukhov's think tank. Russia built Iran's $1 billion Bushehr atomic plant, the country's first, and the country has said it would like to order new Russian-made nuclear power stations.

After shipments of S-300 were stopped in 2009, Iran also canceled talks on buying 40 TU-204 passenger aircraft, which would have added about $3.5 billion of revenue, CAST says.

President Vladimir Putin may resume shipments to Iran in retaliation for the U.S. selling weapons to Georgia and at the same time to promote Russia as an arms exporter, Pukhov said.

"Russia needs to bolster its image as an exporter as a decline in weapons exports is inevitable" because the country "is fulfilling its contract obligations in arms trade quicker than it gets new contracts," he said.

Russia has signed export contracts worth $5.7 billion this year, up from $3.3 billion in the first half of 2011, Putin said. It shipped $6.5 billion of defense equipment overseas in the first half of 2012, up 14 percent from a year earlier.

Arms exports more than doubled to $13.7 billion in 2011 from $6 billion in 2005 and exceeded $44 billion over the last seven years, Putin said on July 2 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Defense accounts for 2.5 percent of Russian exports.

Fifty-five countries including India, China, Venezuela, Syria and the U.S. buy Russian weapons. Sales of new-generation air defense system S-400s to China may begin as early as 2015, Pukhov said.

In Syria, Putin has focused on negotiations over sanctions or military intervention after Russia lost billions of dollars of arms and civilian contracts as a result of the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled autocratic regimes in the region.

Since 2006 Syria signed with Russia arms contracts for about $5.5 billion, according to CAST estimates. In 2012, Syria is due to receive Russian weapons for about $500 million, CAST estimates.

Russia has contracts with Syria to deliver fighter jets, antiaircraft systems and anti-tank systems, according to Pukhov's think tank. Vyacheslav Davidenko, a spokesman for Rosoboronexport, Russia's arms export monopoly, declined to comment.

Tehran threatens Ankara with new missile system

A top Iranian army commander says they produce an anti-radar missile that can strike any source of radar, in a reference to NATO’s radar system in Turkey, as the country steps up for the Great Prophet 7 war games

Iran has produced an anti-radar missile that can strike any source of radar, a top Iranian army official has said, in a reference to the NATO radar system in Malatya, as Iran began war games to demonstrate its military might.

Revolutionary Guards Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh said the message of the maneuvers, dubbed The Great Prophet 7, was to “adventurist” nations in the region and the West, and that Iran would “respond to any possible evil” in a “strong and crushing” way.

He said the maneuvers were aimed at assessing the accuracy and effectiveness of warheads and systems. According to Hajizadeh, the drill, which will include short, medium, and long-range missiles of a variety of models, is being held as part of the Iranian Air Force’s annual exercises. The announcement coincides with the beginning of an EU oil embargo meant to put pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.

Draft bill to block Hormuz

The general also said Iran had produced an anti-radar missile called “Arm” that can hit any radar source. He said the weapon could travel at several times the speed of sound, had an estimated range of 300 kilometers, and could “damage” missile shields in Turkey and Gulf countries.

“This radar was not built to ensure the security of that country, but to protect the Zionist regime. We have developed ‘Arm’ to counter the air-defense radar,” Hajizadeh said.

NATO’s missile shield uses a U.S. warship carrying interceptors in the Mediterranean and a Turkey-based radar system under NATO command from Ramstein, Germany. Apart from Turkey, Spain, Romania and Poland have also agreed to host key U.S. missile-defense assets.

Meanwhile, Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has drafted a bill calling for Iran to try to stop oil tankers from shipping crude through the Strait of Hormuz to countries that support sanctions against it, a committee member said yesterday.

“There is a bill prepared in the National Security and Foreign Policy committee of Parliament that stresses the blocking of oil tanker traffic carrying oil to countries that have sanctioned Iran,” Iranian MP Ibrahim Agha-Mohammadi was quoted by Iran’s parliamentary news agency as saying, according to Reuters. “This bill has been developed as an answer to the European Union’s oil sanctions against the Mad Mullah's Republic of Iran.”