Iran sends cruise missiles to its navy

TEHRAN, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Cruise missiles with a range of 124 miles were delivered to the Iranian navy to bolster the country's national defense, the military said.

The Iranian Defense Ministry said it supplied "large numbers" of anti-ship cruise missiles to the Iranian navy and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the semiofficial Fars News Agency reports.

Iranian military officials noted, during a ceremony commemorating the delivery, that the cruise missiles were manufactured domestically.

Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, the Mehr News Agency in Iran reported, said his country was working on a radar system to counter incoming cruise missile threats. An anti-missile system, he added, is being designed with the aim of retargeting enemy missiles.

Tehran had wanted Russia's S-300 missile defense system to protect its nuclear installations from a possible aerial attack by the Israelis, who bombed an Iraqi nuclear facility in the 1980s.

A 2005 contract signed by Moscow and Tehran outlined terms of the sale of the S-300 missile defense system. The missile system boasts a range of around 100 miles and can engage several targets at once.

However, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed an executive order last year prohibiting the sale of military equipment to Iran.