TEHRAN- Iran will unveil its first home-made Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) system to be installed in the country’s airports by the end of the next Iranian calendar month (September 21), according to an official with Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company.

DME is a radio navigation technology that measures the distance between an aircraft and a ground station by timing the propagation delay of radio signals in the frequency band between 960 and 1215 megahertz (MHz).

Siamak Behnam, the director for navigation in Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company, told Fars news agency on Saturday that the system is being tested in the lab for two months before being utilized in the country’s airports in the next month.

“Iran had purchased the DME systems from Germany, Britain, and France,” he added.

Behnam said that indigenizing the manufacturing of the DME system by the Iranian experts has saved 50 percent of the price of foreign models for the country.

Iran has taken many significant steps in the development of its air industry despite the U.S. sanctions.

In a ceremony held last Monday, Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami unveiled the country’s first domestically-made mobile air traffic control (ATC) tower.

The unveiling ceremony was attended by senior officials including the transport minister, Head of Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company Siavash Amirmokri, as well as Defense Minister Amir Hatami, IRIB reported.

As reported, the mentioned tower has been designed and constructed by Iran Electronics Industries (known as SAIRAN), which is a state-owned subsidiary of the Defense Ministry. It is a diversified organization with operations in electronics, optics, electro-optics, communications, computers, and semiconductors.

Speaking in the ceremony, Eslami underlined the significance of this achievement and said: “This is the starting point for utilizing the domestic capacities more widely in all aspects of transportation including roads, rail, sea, and air, and move towards an integrated and intelligent transportation system in the country.”

Elsewhere in the event, Deputy Head of Iran Airports and Air Navigation Company Mohammad Amirani said that his company signed a deal with Iran Electronics Industries for construction of five mobile towers 18 months ago and this is the first delivery.

Mentioning the significant reduction of costs by constructing such control towers inside the country Amirani said: "While the cost of building five domestic control towers was about 500 billion rials (about $11.9 million) in total, we had to pay more than 400 billion rials (about $9.5 million) to supply only one of these towers from abroad."

According to the official, currently, the only mobile flight control tower in the country, which was purchased from a Canadian company several years ago, is worn out and does not have the necessary efficiency for critical or special conditions.