Iran Guard unveils ballistic missile, ‘new generation’ engines

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unveils a short-range ballistic missile that it says can be powered by a “new generation” of engines designed to put satellites into orbit.

The Guards’ Sepahnews website says the Raad-500 missile is equipped with new Zoheir engines made of composite materials lighter than on earlier steel models.

It also unveils Salman engines made of the same materials but with a “movable nozzle” for the delivery of satellites into space.

The Raad is “a new generation missile that has half the weight of a Fateh-110 missile but with 200 kilometers more range,” it adds.

The Fateh-110 is a ballistic ground-to-ground missile first unveiled in 2002. Its latest generation has a range of 300 kilometers (186 miles).

IRGC commander Major General Hossein Salami unveils the missile and engines today 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 says.

Salami notes the movable nozzle on the new engine allowed “maneuverability beyond the atmosphere” and amounts to a “leap in modern missile technology.”

The new technologies that make the missiles “cheaper, lighter, faster and more precise” could be applied to all of Iran’s missile classes, he adds.

— AFP

#IRGC on Sunday unveiled a new missile with a composite engine as well as the new generation of engines for propelling missiles and satellite carriershttps://t.co/IA1pfo9TVG pic.twitter.com/EjOD2XfU8a

— Tasnim News Agency (@Tasnimnews_EN) February 9, 2020