Iran test-fires new generation long-range ballistic missiles, state media report

Iran has successfully test-fired a new long-range surface-to-surface missile, state-run IRNA reported on Sunday.

The Emad (Pillar) missile, designed and built by Iranian experts, is the country's first long-range missile that can be precision-guided until it reaches its target, said Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan, Iran's defense minister.

"To follow our defense programs, we don't ask permission from anyone," he said, according to IRNA.

The new rocket is "capable of scrutinizing the targets and destroying them completely," IRNA reported.

Improved accuracy

Anthony Cordesman, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in October last year that the Emad was a variant of Iran's existing Shahab-3 long-range missile, "but with a maneuvering reentry vehicle to improve system accuracy and complicate missile defense."

The liquid-propelled rocket had a range of 1,700 kilometers (1,056 miles) and was accurate to within 500 meters (1,640 feet) of the target.

The rocket could carry a 750-kilogram (1,653-pound) payload and was scheduled for deployment some time after 2016, he wrote.

The Shahab-3 is based on the Nodong, a North Korean missile, according to a paper by Michael Elleman, a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a UK-based think tank.

Cordesman's report said Tehran has been steadily developing its missile technology, focusing in particular on improvements to guidance systems.

Its existing missiles systems had "poor accuracy and uncertain reliability," he wrote, giving them limited military effectiveness.

The improving missile arsenal gave Tehran "a longer range strike capability that its aging air force largely lacks," he wrote.

Iran's air force, once the largest in the Gulf, degraded following the break with the West that occurred during the 1979 revolution, due to a lack of access to spare parts, maintenance and pilot training, according to Elleman.

Since then, Tehran has focused on developing its missile capability, and now boasts the "largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East," according to Elleman. Israel's stockpile was more capable, but smaller, he wrote.