Ria NovostiMOSCOW, June 22 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow made a new attempt to dodge a $4-billion lawsuit from Tehran over a failed deal to supply S-300 missile systems by offering another type of air defense system to Iran, Kommersant daily said Saturday.
The new offer on the table is Antei-2500, aka S-300VM, or SA-23 Gladiator in NATO nomenclature, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources in the Russian arms trade industry. The missile defense system can simultaneously destroy up to 24 aircraft within the range a range of 200 kilometers or intercept up to 16 ballistic missiles.
The deal can be formalized during the visit of outgoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Moscow on July 1, an unnamed Iranian diplomat told Kommersant.
Iran was initially interested in the S-300 missile complexes, signing in 2007 a contract worth $800 million for five missile defense systems of this make.
But the deal was scrapped in 2010 by then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was unilaterally expanding on sanctions against Iran imposed by the UN Security Council.
Iran filed a $4-billion lawsuit against Russia in the international arbitration court in Geneva, which is currently pending review.
Moscow has struggled to have the lawsuit dropped, including by offering the Tor anti-aircraft systems as replacement, media reported earlier this month, adding that the offer was rejected by Tehran.
The Antei-2500, however, may be a better solution. The system does not formally fall under the existing sanctions against Iran while still being useful for the Middle Eastern country, which wants to have protection against a possible missile strike by its enemy Israel, Kommersant said.
While the S-300 was developed for the use by missile defense forces, the Antei-2500 was specifically tailored for the needs of ground forces, which could also be an advantage for Iran, known for its large land force.
Russia is already exporting the Antei-2500, having delivered two missile systems to Venezuela earlier this year. India and Turkey were also named as potential buyers, though no deals were formalized so far.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20130622/181809995/Russia-Offers-Iran-New-Replacement-for-S-300–Paper.html
The Iranians should grab these as they are pretty formidable and will likely thwart anything the Israeli’s or the US could throw at Iran air wise and these are the ones that can track the stealth craft as well as shoot down the high altitude craft as well making the US’s tactical advantage with the stealth and B-52 null and void.
There is nothing too to stop Russia wandering in and upgrading these in-situ, these systems are second to top in the S-300 V branch and on a operational par to the PMU2 export versions and Iran is probably not realising that Russia has kept back more systems to protect itself as well as giving extras to Syria in the intermediate future as the “hot” zone is likely to start there not Iran. Russia is more than aware of its own “backdoor” of Georgia and is more than aware too of the thousands of US, Israeli troops gathered there and Putin is no fool to sell systems off and leave his own backdoor guarded.
Of course Iran is a large country so its demands are likely to be needing more than less, if the Wikipedia entry is correct and Iran has already the S300P variant brought from Croatia, I wonder if Iran and Russia are trying to imply a weakness to the “enemy” and goad perhaps an impromptu attack that could be publicly repulsed and turned into a PR nightmare for certain countries too.
I say we boot John Kerry and replace him with Angry Grandparent. He sure seems to be more suited for the job.
Vlad rasPUTIN is just another Zionist shill, strutting around the world stage, faking his support for Syria and Iran.
He’s canceled several arms deals to both countries, but can’t stay away from the spotlight, since he loves being a celebrity.
IMO, Russia isn’t going to do anything to hurt the bastard offspring of Communism and Zionism, Israel.
Agreed.
At the center of the Putin Matryoshka doll is a zionist tool.
This faux ally of Syria and Iran will pull the rug out from under them.
They’ll stab China in the back as well.
Maybe BRIC is a destabilization list in that order.
-flek
its funny that the choice of half the world that does not like the U.S. buys Russian defense systems, that should tell you something, like the Russians have just as advanced or more so than the U.S. weapons systems. I read somewhere that instead of builing the most technological advanced delivery systems that Russia spent thier money on how to defeat ours, and it seems they did a good job at it.
Hmmm
These are not even close to effectiveness of the S-300 system. The reason is that they are much more vulnerable to Israeli countermeasures. These limitations are well known. On the other hand the S-300 is extremely effective at overcoming israeli physical and electronic counter measures with over twice the effective range.
So the biggest problem with this system is its very limited range of only 75 KM. Because it is so short ranged it doesn’t offer 2nd strike opportunities and it is much more vulnerable to being taken out by israeli aircraft as a result. It would not be able to reach deep into israeli airspace.
In short because of the design limitations this system would not be an effective deterrent against israeli air attacks. Which is why the zionist media is pushing for it.