TEHRAN (Press TV) -- Iran plans to significantly reinforce its air defense power in the areas covering the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, a high-ranking military commander said on Sunday.
Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, the commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base, said that the base has devised plans to "transform” Iranian air defense power in the skies over the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
He said air defense systems are deployed in 3,700 points across Iran, and that there is no specific problem in the operations of Irania radars and missile systems.
Esmaili said his base ensures the security of more than 900 flights that pass over Iran’s airspace every day, and that all flights within or near Iranian airspace are being closely monitored by the country’s unified air defense system.
"If an aircraft attempts to approach our airspace, it will receive due warnings,” Brig. Gen. Esmaili said.
The senior Iranian commander further said that a great deal of international flights crossing Iranian airspace pass over Isfahan Province in central Iran, and that the country’s central air defense outpost is protecting the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) of Isfahan, the Natanz nuclear facility as well as the neighboring province of Chaharmahal-o-Bakhtiari and Yazd.
In, Defense Minister Brigadier General Hussein Dehqan said Iran’s air defense has now been equipped with the Russian S-300 missile defense systems.
He also said the country was in the final stages of manufacturing an indigenous long-range air defense system known as "Bavar (Belief) 373.”
"The system, which can be used to confront ballistic and cruise missiles, drones, and warplanes, will be manufactured and put on the production line this year,” Dehqan said, adding the system can simultaneously engage several targets.
The Islamic Republic maintains that its military might poses no threat to other countries, stating that its defense doctrine is merely based on deterrence.