Analysis: Bavar-373 Iranian-made air defense missile system
Iran in the top five producers of air defense missile systems with its local-made Bavar-373, according to Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Brigadier General Qassem Taqizadeh. The Bavar-373 is designed and built by the defense ministry, domestic industries, and some Iranian universities.
A battery of Bavar-373 Iranian-made air defense missile system. (Picture source Defanews Iranian News Agency)
Iran's Deputy Defense Minister Brigadier General Qassem Taqizadeh highlighted his country’s great advancements in the fields of anti-armor missiles, cruise missiles, and air-defense systems, adding that the domestically-built Bavar-373 missile defense system is the best arms production accomplishment made by his country since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The first prototype of the Bavar-373 was built on 22 November 2011 and it was formally unveiled during a ceremony attended by the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on 22 August 2019.
The latest version of Bavar-373 seems to be based on a 10×10 “Zoljanah” truck with four rectangular container launchers mounted at the rear of the chassis. Each container contains one Sayyad-4 missile. According to the Iranian defense industry, the Sayyad-4 has a range of 300 km and can reach an altitude of 27 kilometers. It is designed to intercept and destroy any types of aerial targets as wells as ballistic missiles.
The Sayyad-4 missile is very similar to the Russian-made 48N6E which is the missile used by the Russian S-300 air defense missile systems. The 48N6E is a vertical tube-launched, solid fuel, single-stage, long-range, Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) designed to engage aircraft, cruise missiles, UAVs, and Theater Ballistic Missiles (TBMs). It is able to operate in the clutter and jamming environment. 48N6E features high maneuverability, a fragmentation warhead, proximity fuse, and a semi-active radar guidance system.
Sayyad-4 surface-to-air missile of Bavar-373 air defense system (Picture source Defanews Iranian News Agency)
According to Iranian sources, the Bavar-373 can detect up to 300 targets at a time at a range of 300 kilometers, simultaneously tracking sixty of them and engaging six, whether aircraft or ballistic missiles. A battery of Bavar-373 includes up to six mobile launcher units with four ready to launch missiles, active electronically scanned array (AESA) engagement radar mounted on truck chassis, one acquisition radar operating in S-band frequencies mounted on 8×8 “Zafar” truck and a command-and-control using also an 8×8 “Zafar truck chassis.
The Iranian defense company Iran Electronics Industries has listed the Meraj-4 as a component of the Bavar- 373 battery, which is a road-mobile S-band early warning 3D AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar. The manufacturer claims that the Meraj-4 radar has a detection range from 400 to 500 km, a tracking range of 200 km maximum, and a 360-degree azimuth.
Meraj-4 radar part of Bavar-373 air defense missile system (Picture source Twitter)
Command post truck of Bavar-373 (Picture source Defanews Iranian press agency)
Acquisition radar of Bavar-373 (Picture source Defanews Iranian press agency)
