Iran unveils home-grown missile defence system

TEHRAN: Iran unveiled its new home-grown air defence system on Thursday at a time of increased tensions with the United States.

Iranian officials have previously called Bavar-373 the Islamic republic´s first domestically produced long-range missile defence system. Tehran began making Bavar, which means "believe", after the purchase of Russia´s S-300 system was suspended in 2010 due to international sanctions.

President Hassan Rouhani attended the unveiling ceremony for the mobile surface-to-air system and ordered it to be added to Iran´s missile defence network, state news agency IRNA reported.

"The long-range Bavar-373 missile system is suited to Iran´s geography with a range of more than 200 kilometres... and competes with Russian and American systems such as S-300 and Patriot," IRNA said.

The system is "better than S-300 and close to S-400", Rouhani said in televised remarks after the ceremony, held on Iran´s "national defence industry day". Pictures released by his office showed the system mounted on the back of military trucks in Tehran.