NATIONAL AIR DEFENSE DAY
Indigenous Air Defenses With ‘No Foreign Equivalent’ Near Deployment
TEHRAN -- Iran’s air defense forces have developed and are fielding new domestically manufactured air defense systems with no known foreign counterparts, a top military commander announced Tuesday.
Brigadier General Alireza Elhami, commander of the Iranian Army’s Air Defense Force, highlighted a key advantage in the ongoing confrontation with U.S. and Israeli forces: the enemy’s limited understanding of their capabilities and operating methods.
“Iran’s air defense has previously deployed some of its indigenous systems during the 40-day war, playing a role in downing more than 200 enemy aircraft,” he said. “These systems are gradually becoming operational products and there is no known foreign equivalent for them.”
The announcement came as Iran marked National Air Defense Day, with senior military officials emphasizing the strategic importance of self-reliance in defense manufacturing amid ongoing war of terrorism waged by the United States and Israel.
Elhami stressed that one of the key advantages of domestically produced systems is the enemy’s limited knowledge of their specifications, capabilities, and methods of operation. This proved decisive during the 40-day war, he said.
“This advantage made it more difficult for the enemy to confront Iran’s air defense, to the extent that in some cases the enemy did not know which system had targeted them, nor did they have an accurate understanding of how to counter it,” Elhami stated.
The commander explained that these new systems will undergo field testing and performance evaluation before entering mass production. “After completing legal and technical processes and reaching the necessary level of maturity, they will enter the production and proliferation phase,” he said.
Brigadier General Muhammad Sadeghian, deputy coordinator of the Air Defense Force, described the decades of sanctions on Iran’s defense sector as an unexpected advantage rather than a hindrance.
“Restrictions on the sale of weapons to the Islamic Republic is not a new issue,” Sadeghian said in an interview. “We have faced such conditions since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, but these sanctions turned into an opportunity for the armed forces.”
He noted that reliance on foreign equipment could create limitations, including incompatibility with Iran’s geographical conditions, operational needs, and the specific threats facing the country. This led Iran’s armed forces, in cooperation with the Defense Ministry’s defense industries, to design and build systems based on operational needs and threat analysis.
“Today, we have no bottlenecks in the production and construction of indigenous air defense systems,” Sadeghian declared.
The deputy commander highlighted how Iran’s indigenous systems allowed for rapid battlefield adaptation during the 12-day and 40-day wars.
“During the recent wars, proportionate to the type of enemy aggression, we made changes to the air defense systems,” Sadeghian explained. “Software was updated, new positioning was implemented, and new designs were developed.”
“This capability has been made possible due to the indigenous nature of the systems, allowing us to apply necessary changes to equipment in the shortest possible time in response to enemy threats,” he added.
Sadeghian provided details on the scale of Iran’s air defense network, noting that personnel are deployed at more than 3,800 locations across the country, including deserts, coastlines, islands, and high-altitude mountainous terrain.
“The main mission of air defense is to detect, identify, track, and engage aerial targets,” he explained. The integrated network operates 24 hours a day, with radar and electro-optical equipment monitoring Iranian skies and beyond.
He emphasized that air defense coordination extends across all branches of the armed forces, with Army, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and other military units operating under a unified national air defense network. Decision-making is instantaneous, with commanders determining in real-time how to respond to each aerial target.
In separate messages marking National Air Defense Day, Iran’s most senior military leaders underscored the force’s critical role in national security.
Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces and Commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters Major General Ali Abdollahi described air defense as essential to Iran’s “active deterrence” strategy.
“The experience of the recent war once again demonstrated that air defense is one of the pillars of the country’s defense power and, at the same time, one of the most important fields for the manifestation of Iran’s scientific and technological capability,” said Defense Ministry caretaker Brigadier General Seyed Majid Ibn-e-Reza in a separate message.
Abdollahi stressed the necessity of relying on internal capabilities and elite youth to counter evolving threats, calling for the integration of all detection, radar, and missile layers into an intelligent and resilient network capable of intercepting and neutralizing any potential threat.
Sadeghian paid tribute to the personnel of the Air Defense Force, noting that the Army’s Air Defense has lost 158 martyrs in three separate periods: the events of November 5, 2024 (the 12-day war), and the Ramadan War. These sacrifices, he said, underscore the force’s commitment to protecting Iran’s territorial integrity.