TEHRAN – Iran will unveil a new domestically manufactured cruise missile in the near future, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has announced. 

“During Sacred Defense Week (September 22-29), we unveiled the Qader cruise missile. In the near future, the Zafar cruise missile will be unveiled,” Vahidi told the Mehr News Agency on Thursday in response to a question about the latest achievements of the Islamic Republic in missile technology. 

“We have more plans on the agenda to design and mass-produce ballistic and cruise missiles,” he stated. 

On September 28, domestically manufactured Qader missiles were delivered to the Navy and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Naval Force. 

The Qader cruise missile has a range of 200 kilometers and flies at a low altitude. It has a high destruction power and can target destroyers and battleships. 

On the Defense Ministry’s plan to develop fighter jets, Vahidi said Iranian engineers have so far designed and manufactured fighters like the Azarakhsh and the Sa’eqeh, adding that new fighter jets are in the process of being designed and manufactured.  

The Sa’eqeh is a single-seater fighter jet. It is the second generation of the Azarakhsh fighter. Sa’eqeh fighter planes were first tested successfully in September 2007. The Sa’eqeh is a joint product of the Iranian Air Force and the Defense Ministry.

On the fact that Russia has failed to deliver S-300 missile systems to Iran, he said, “In our view, the case is still open and the Russian party should honor the agreement.”

“But manufacturing indigenized long-range missile systems is on the agenda,” he said. 

He also said that Russia has reimbursed the advance payment for S-300 missile systems.    

Russia signed a deal to deliver five batteries of S-300PMU-1 air defense systems to Iran in 2007 but cancelled the sale in September 2010, claiming the systems, along with a number of other weapons, were covered by the fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.