Russia to deliver updated S-300 air defense system to Iran

Tehran- Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said on Tuesday that Russia will deliver the updated S-300 air defense system to Iran, according to the Iranian news Agency (IRNA).

Talking to reporters, Dehqan made the remarks on the threshold of the national Defense Industry Day to be commemorated on August 21.

He reiterated that Russia is committed to an agreement inked with Iran on delivery of the S-300 air defense system to the Islamic republic.

‘The Russian side is fully obliged to carry out the state-of art technological changes on the S-300 air defense system and deliver the modernized missiles to Iran,’ he added.

On July 31, 2015, Vladimir Kozhin, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide on military-technical cooperation said that Russia is assembling a more advanced version of its S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system to begin its shipment to Iran by 2016.

He noted that Moscow is also modernizing some parts of the system and changing contract terms such as the pricing.

“The Iranians want them as soon as possible, and we are trying, too. There is activity to prepare new legal contracts, new conditions and thus prepare systems for delivery,” Kozhin said.

He added that some of the military systems that had been intended for sale to Iran were supplied to other clients, and that some parts of other S-300 systems stored across Russia have undergone “serious modernization” with the passage of years.

H.M