Iran unveils ballistic missile

TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards unveiled on Sunday a short-range ballistic missile that they said can be powered by a "new generation" of engines designed to put satellites into orbit.

The Guards’ Sepahnews website said the Raad-500 missile was equipped with new Zoheir engines made of composite materials lighter than on earlier steel models. It also unveiled Salman engines made of the same materials but with a "movable nozzle" for the delivery of satellites into space.

The Raad was "a new generation missile that has half the weight of a Fateh-110 missile but with 200 kilometres more range," it added. The Fateh-110 is a ballistic ground-to-ground missile first unveiled in 2002. Its latest generation has a range of 300 kilometres (186 miles).

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Major General Hossein Salami unveiled the missile and engines alongside IRGC aerospace chief Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh. "The complicated achievements on the bleeding edge of global technology that were unveiled today are our key to entering space," Salami said.

Salami noted the movable nozzle on the new engine allowed "manoeuvrability beyond the atmosphere" and amounted to a "leap in modern missile technology". The new technologies that made the missiles "cheaper, lighter, faster and more precise" could be applied to all of Iran’s missile classes, he added.