Air Defense Top Priority of Iran’s Armed Forces

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces described plans to boost the country’s air defense capabilities as the number one priority, saying the significant progress in that sphere has turned Iran’s airspace into one of the safest in the turbulent Middle East region. Building up air defense capabilities has been the main priority for the Iranian Armed Forces since a couple of years ago, given the fact that aerial and missile offensives still seem a probability, though pretty low, in case of any military action against Iran, Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri said on Saturday. Iran has carried out extensive work on the research into and production of advanced air defense systems to counter the threats, the top commander told reporters on the sidelines of a military exhibition in Tehran. Last week, Iran’s Air Defense unveiled four homegrown systems for civil and military applications. The four systems, dubbed Sama, Samee’, Baseer, and Samet-1, are used for detecting aerial targets, controlling air traffic, and transferring data.