Iran’s Homegrown Missile Defense System ‘Bavar-373’ Completes Initial Tests

Iran’s first domestically built long-range missile defense system has successfully completed its initial tests, local media reports.

In an interview with Tasnim news agency on Saturday, Lieutenant Commander of Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base General Abolfazl Sepehrirad said the Bavar-373 air defense missile system has gone through all of the initial tests successfully.

The Bavar 373 – which translates as “faith” – is designed to intercept cruise missiles, drones, combat aircraft and ballistic missiles. It was intended to match the Russian S-300 system, the delivery of which was suspended in 2010 due to sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear program.

Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, the commander of the Iranian Army’s Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base, was quoted as saying by local media in September 2017 that the Bavar-373 will be operational by the end of the new Persian calendar year in March 2018.

In recent years, Iran has upgraded its military capabilities, including its air defense system, through deploying both indigenous and foreign weapons systems.