The IRGC Navy took delivery of the missiles in a ceremony on August 6, days after it held drills in the Persian Gulf to showcase its ability to defend the country’s triple islands of Bu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs.
Ghadir has a range of 300 kilometers and can be used in coastal launchers and naval combat vessels. It uses an inertial guidance system for its initial phase and an active radar guidance system for its final phase.
After the sea target is detected by the radars, the missile is launched toward the target using an internal guidance system, or inertia, and locks onto the target using the radar. In the final phase, it employs an active radar guidance system to hit the target.
The first in the family of the Ghadir cruise missile was a missile called Nour with a range of 120 kilometers and equipped with a Tolou-4 mini-jet engine. Nour could be launched from wide coastal, sea and air platforms, including the Mi-17 helicopter of the IRGC Navy and the F-4 fighter of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF).
The Defense Ministry then decided to upgrade Nour to achieve higher ranges, and it ultimately designed and produced the Ghader missile with a range of 200 kilometers. The distinct characteristic of Ghader was that it could be launched by F-4 Phantom fighters of the IRIAF, enabling the force to carry out anti-ship missions.
Also known as CM-200, Ghader had a weight of 746 kilograms and was equipped with a 165kg warhead.
The ministry also introduced CM-200A, or the air-launched Ghader, which was smaller and had a weight of 535 kilometers and was equipped with a 155kg warhead.
The CM-300 Qadir is a new type of missile developed by the Iranian defense industries. It has a range of 15 km to 300 km, a diameter of 360 millimeters similar to Qader medium-range missile, a similar length, and a weight of 770 kilograms, while the warhead accounts for 165 kilograms of Qadir’s weight.
Given the dimensions of the Noor missiles, smaller versions of Noor had been manufactured for use in missile launchers of the IRGC Navy's boats, until Kowsar-1 and Kowsar-2 missiles were produced.
The Kowsar missiles had differences in size and propulsion, and they used rocket engines instead of using mini-jets.
The next cruise missile in this class was the Nasr (CM-35) that had a range of 35 kilometers and could be carried and launched from various platforms such as coastal launchers, IRGC speed boats, strategic naval vessels of the Iranian army as well as Bell-206 helicopters of the IRGC Navy and F-4 Phantom fighter jets operated by the Iranian army.
Other specifications of the CM-35 cruise missile include a range of 5 to 35 kilometers, a diameter of 280 millimeters, a length of 2.3 meters, and a weight of 360 kilograms, with a warhead weighing 130 kilograms. The air-launched version of the Nasr ballistic missile, which is dubbed CM-35A, has the same length and diameter as well as a range of 5 to 35 kilometers while it can carry a 130-kilogram warhead with a total weight of 321 kilograms.
Following the manufacturing of the infrared-guided Nasr, which is named Nasr Basir, a more up-to-date version of the missile was manufactured under the brand of Nasir (CM-90). The missile, in spite of being larger and heavier than other missiles of its type, uses a turbojet engine instead of a rocket engine.
The Nasir missile with the ability of being launched from coastal and maritime platforms has a range of 10 and 90 kilometers, a diameter of 180 millimeters, a length of about 4 meters, and a weight of 351 kilograms. Moreover, it is capable of carrying a 130-kilogram warhead at a maximum speed of 8.0 Mach.
As it is said above, the Noor anti-ship cruise missiles group has turbojet and solid fuel rocket engines in some subcategories, which chiefly compose the Islamic Republic of Iran's short-range missiles arsenal. The use of turbojet engines gives the missile the ability to access greater ranges and obviously improves its range of detecting and targeting objectives. A missile with such a structure needs initial speed, because the turbojet engine cannot provide the essential speed for launching and separating the missile from the launcher when it is fired.
This need is met by using a solid fuel booster that speeds the rocket up to the required velocity for propulsion, and the booster is separated from the rocket after completing its task.
On the other hand, cruise missiles equipped with rocket propulsion have a simpler structure compared to those relying on turbojet engines.
In addition to lower construction costs, they do not need a booster to launch like turbojet cruise missiles.
Due to its lighter weight and smaller dimensions (part of which is provided by removing the booster of turbojet missiles), this model makes it possible to use them on aerial platforms, including helicopters as well as for carrying and launching on light fighters.
Perhaps the most important point in Iranian cruise missiles, apart from the amount and type of the warhead, the type of carrier platform, the board and the type of guidance system, is their speed.
Currently, all kinds of the Iranian cruise missiles, including those in the Noor category that have a maximum speed of 0.8 Mach and others in the Sumar/Hoveizeh/Abu Mahdi categories that have a maximum speed of 0.78 Mach, have a subsonic speed.
In a situation where a wide range of short and mid-range defense systems are currently being developed to fight cruise missile threats, a missile with a subsonic speed has a high probability of being targeted.
This possibility exists for anti-ship cruise missiles in addition to land attack cruise missiles that are used to target enemy on land and must pass several radars and interception systems.
Currently, countries are trying to use different defense systems in military vessels in different classes and weight categories, from short-range to long-range and location-based defense types with high firing missile systems, to be able to protect vessels against various threats, especially anti-ship cruises and suicide drones.
It is possible that if a missile with subsonic speed is used, its success and probability of reaching and hitting the target will decrease.
Although the amount of failure can be compensated by increasing the number of cruise missiles fired, the use of supersonic missiles with a speed between 1-5 Mach (more precisely, 1.2 Mach to 5 Mach) increases the probability of hitting the target and decreases the chances of detection and destruction by land and sea defense systems.
4354**4208**9376**4261
Your Comment