Russia denies supplying S-300 missile systems to Iran

Bang-Bang

New Member
MOSCOW, December 22 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is not selling S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran, the Russian federal service for military cooperation said in a statement on Monday.

"Reports on deliveries of S-300 systems are untrue," the statement said.

Iran's official news agency IRNA, quoting a deputy head of Iran's parliamentary foreign policy and security commission, reported on Sunday that Russia had started supplying components for S-300 surface-to-air missile systems.

Russia's state-run arms exporter said earlier on Monday that Moscow only sold defensive weapons to Iran, in strict compliance with the international nonproliferation regime.

"Only defensive systems are being supplied to Iran, including surface-to-air systems. Previously, Tor-M1 air-defense systems were supplied to Iran," Rosoboronexport said.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has neither denied nor confirmed the report.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tel Aviv had received assurances from Russia that it had not started S-300 deliveries to Tehran.

A deputy chief of Russia's federal service for military cooperation said last Wednesday that military cooperation between Russia and Iran was designed to ensure regional stability.

"Military cooperation between Russia and Iran has a positive impact on stability in the region. We have been developing and will continue to develop this cooperation," Alexander Fomin said.

According to unofficial sources, Russia and Iran are currently in talks on a deal to sell Tehran advanced medium-range surface-to-air missile systems.

Source : http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081222/119119507.html


Comments Please ....
 

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
First off please don't post news without your own commentary. Second off, this comes after Iran said that they are set to receive components of the system in the near future. Third off they are not denying the deal, just that any deliveries have been made. Finally I doubt Russia will ever do it, due to a sensetive relationship with Israel. Iirc they've already declined to sell them to Syria at Israeli request.
 

roberto

Banned Member
Well Iranian/Russians are creating confusion.


http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=79413&sectionid=351020101
Iran keeps quiet on S-300, for now
Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:07:40 GMT

Iran says details on a potential S-300 deal with Russia will be released in due course, after the US warned Moscow against such agreement
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said Wednesday that Tehran would elaborate on the potential Russian sale of advanced surface-to-air missiles "when the occasion presents itself."
He added that Iran would never hesitate in purchasing any leading-edge equipment that it deems necessary for its defense, while stressing that they would be made public when the time is right.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3642395,00.html
So who’s telling the truth?
Seemingly, one of the sides is lying, either the Iranians or the Russians. Yet a thorough examination of the official declarations on the subject, as well as publications in the Russian and Iranian media raises yet another possibility: It is certainly possible that both sides - in technical terms at least - are telling the truth. But not the whole truth
 

shrubage

New Member
There are precedents for the delivery of S300s sparking international incidents. Several years ago they were going to supply them to the greek Cypriots which nearly reignited the conflict. In the end Turkeys uncompromising statement that they wouldn't tolerate the missiles on the Island forced the Greeks to back down. The Greek army took delivery in the end.

The S300 makes a potential aerial bombardment of Iran in the future untenable. It risks Israel pushing Israel (and the US) into a corner, offering them a limited window before the system goes operational. It would also serve to remove some of the inhibitions Iran may now have about developing WMDs. I can't believe the Russian would think its in their interests for this to happen.

On another note Iran already has a well developed IADS. Its indigenously producing upgraded versions of the S200. Its also almost certainly been able to study the S300 up close (Belarus) so its entirely possible that you'll see Iranian industry start to incorporate features from the systems into its new designs
 

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
I suspect that's why they purchased the Tor-M1. With the Tors they also purchased two (TWO!!!!) S-125 heavily modernized systems. What do they want with two systems? Obviously they're planning to reverse engineer them. I suspect the Tors have been met with the same fate. Possibly some have been inducted as an experimental unit, while some have been used for study, and potential reproduction. Interestingly enough I recall reading that the Tors delivered were of two types. Mounted on a self-propelled tracked chassies, and mounted in a truck-towed set up. Why two different types? Maintenance is more complicated. As is training. Especially for such low quantities. Probably they wanted to evaluate which means was more effective for domestic use, and production.

And again the statements, like it was said, are not directly contradictory. Russia is denying deliveries. Iran is claiming a deal was signed, and deliveries will begin shortly. I doubt any major, large scale, or significant deliveries will take place openly, especially given Russian interest in Israeli UAVs, that has recently appeared, and given the precedent. I suspect Iran may get batches of components, or something along those lines. Or perhaps access to the technical documents. And quite possibly, of an older variant like the P or V, instead of the PMU-1/2, or VM.
 

shrubage

New Member
I suspect that's why they purchased the Tor-M1. With the Tors they also purchased two (TWO!!!!) S-125 heavily modernized systems. What do they want with two systems? Obviously they're planning to reverse engineer them. I suspect the Tors have been met with the same fate. Possibly some have been inducted as an experimental unit, while some have been used for study, and potential reproduction. Interestingly enough I recall reading that the Tors delivered were of two types. Mounted on a self-propelled tracked chassies, and mounted in a truck-towed set up. Why two different types? Maintenance is more complicated. As is training. Especially for such low quantities. Probably they wanted to evaluate which means was more effective for domestic use, and production.
Whether or not they've actually got operational S300 systems on the way its a safe bet that they've gotten their hands on at least one individual example of the numberous systems (Croatia, Belarus, Ukraine etc etc) that were disposed of by their previous owners, that should suffice for reverse engineering purposes.

Iranian GBAD on the face of it is a horrible hodgepodge of western systems skyguard, rapier, hawk, land based sm-1s even tigercats together with the more modern russian systems. On the face of it keeping a subsonic SAM such as the tigercat in your inventory is laughable untill you think of the infastructure that must have been put in place to keep all this kit servicable 30 years after western countries turned off the spare parts tap.

The S125 and S200 have shown considerable capacity for modernisation (it was a serbian S125 that downed the F117). Perhaps the Iranians have already decided on the route they want to go down. With technology transfers from Russian and indigenously produced systems, they'll have a IADS and the infastructure to maintain it. In fact the low key answer for them would be to hand over a wad of cash to the Russian in return for the actual designs and some key components.
 

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
I suspect that the SAMs of such age may be in an inoperable condition. After all we do not have the information, and given that Iran has access to a number of old, but newer then that, Russian SAMs, the need for it is questionable. So essentially, we agree that we're looking at a situation where Iran has little interest in acquiring the system itself, as it is expensive, and is likely to become public knowledge, and most importantly would have to be a very very large order, to convince Russia it's worth the while to risk international displeasure. Even the insignificant in size Tor M1 deal raised quite a bit of questions. Instead Iran is looking for technology to indigenize the system, and produce it, or a spinoff, or potentially retro-fit some components into the IADS network as a whole (for example the radars from an S-300).
 
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