Iran unveils Kamin-2 air defense missile system on National Day parade.

Iran’s Air Defense unveiled a new indigenous air defense missile system on Wednesday in a military parade marking the National Army Day on 18 April.

"Kamin-2", the new Iranian air defense missile system, an upgrade from the "Marsad" (Picture source: IRNA)

One of the major attractions spotted during the parade in Tehran was the new air defense missile system, dubbed “Kamin-2”. It is a short-range air defense system designed to take out reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as well as manned airplanes and helicopters flying at low altitudes. This latest military system is an upgraded version of the Mersad missile system.

The move flouts international restrictions on such weapons and will be seen by many as a direct challenge to President Donald Trump's attempt to “strangle” the Iranian missile programme, as well as to scrap the current agreement on the country's civilian nuclear programme and force Iran to accept to renegotiate a new one, which Teheran and Moscow have already firmly refused (the European Union has declared its will to keep on implementing the current agreement, even if French President Emmanuel Macron declared on 25 April in Washington that a new agreement should be envisaged).

Iran is expected to deploy these missiles to war zones in the Middle East such as Syria to combat what Iranian officials call "regional threats". Earlier this week Iranian army airborne commander Yousef Qorbani announced the missile unveiling to state media: "The range of the missile has doubled to fly 8 to 12km further compared with the previous version," he said. Given the regional threats that we are facing, they can be highly effective in combats in short-range combat zones."

In addition to the new missiles, Iran unveiled helicopters armed with rockets and machine guns. Iran has said that these would be deployed "for combat in proxy and guerilla wars". Qorbani added: "Our dear experts in the air industry have had a highly successful performance and have equipped our helicopters with night-vision systems. "We have also become fully indigenised in the field of long-range missile systems." Iran has among the highest stockpile of ballistic missiles in the region.