Russia selling advanced SAMs to Iran Contributed by Bill Faith
MOSCOW — Russia has begun delivery of Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran, a Defense Ministry official said Friday, confirming that Moscow would proceed with arms deals with Tehran in spite of Western criticism.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue, declined to specify when the deliveries had been made and how many systems had been delivered.
Ministry officials have previously said Moscow would supply 29 of the sophisticated missile systems to Iran under a $700 million contract signed in December, according to Russian media reports. ...
OWD's resident expert on Russian aviation sent me quite a bit of information on the Tor-M1 system when rumors of this sale first leaked several months ago. To save you an extra jump to a site I need to do some repairs on, I'm reproducing below the jump.
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Iran's Main SAM Threat (Updated & Bumped)
*** Update 2: Don't miss Rurik's and Eric's additional thoughts at the end of this post. ***
Russians Insist On Sale Of Missile System To Iran
Russia from its planned sale of air-defense missile systems to Iran, the Washington Post reports this morning, as Vladimir Putin continues his march against the West and his determination to restart the Cold War. In response, the US hinted that Russian intransigence on Iran will push the issue away from the United Nations and into a new multilateral coalition that will impose its own response to the Iranian nuclear program:
At a news conference in Washington yesterday, the State Department's third-highest-ranking officer, R. Nicholas Burns, said the time has come for countries "to use their leverage with Iran" and halt exports of weapons and nuclear-related technologies. He singled out the sale of 29 Tor-M1 air-defense missile systems to Iran under a $700 million contract announced by Russia in December.
"We hope and we trust that that deal will not go forward, because this is not time for business as usual with the Iranian government," said Burns, the undersecretary of state for political affairs. ...
[Read on .]
I originally everything from here down [Update: Insert "with the exception of Rurik's and Eric's comments" here] on Jan 15, 2006. Since the matter's back in the news I think it makes sense to move it up where some new people can see it.
With the whole world wondering if we're going to have to end up using military force to end Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's delusions of grandeur, it's about time I posted some information I set aside earlier about the one of the main threats our pilots will encounter if we launch an aerial attack on Iran.
Russia to honor Iran arms deal despite US objection
MOSCOW, Dec. 23 [2004] (Xinhuanet) -- Russia will fully comply with a deal with Iran to supply it with the Tor-M1 air defense systems despite US objections, a senior Defense Ministry official said Friday.
"The Russian side, despite objections from the United States, will honor its contract with Iran for the supply of the upgraded version of the Tor system," the official was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
The official said delivery of the 30 Tor-M1 systems will begin in January and be completed by the end of next year. [the end of 2005, in other words]
The deal is believed to be worth 1.4 billion US dollars and is the biggest ever arms deal between Russia and Iran.
The Tor-M1 system is capable of identifying up to 48 targets and tracing and firing at two targets simultaneously at a height of up to 6,100 meters.
US officials have called the deal a source of concern and said the United States strongly opposed the missile sale.
[Read the whole thing .]
Thanks go to friend, fellow 'Nam vet, student of Russian history and published aviation author George "Rurik" Mellinger for the following pictures, which he took at a Russian air show last summer:
(I've moved the picture that was here in my original post to the top of this one.)
George sends the following information with the photos:
Background on the Russian Tor & Tor M-1 missiles
According to the major press agencies, Russia and Iran have signed an agreement for the sale of “up to 30" new Surface to air missile systems, of the type Tor M-1.
Here’s a bit of background on the “new” weapons system. It is a derivative of the original Tor (Russian designation 9K330) dating from the mid to late 1980s. NATO Designation is SA-15 Gauntlet. Design began, supposedly in 1975, and the system was introduced from December 1986. It was intended to equip the SAM regiment attached to Tank and Motor Rifle Divisions. In fact, supply of these systems were never sufficient, and many divisions still use the SA-8 Gecko (9K33 Osa). The Tor/Gauntlet was supposed to be capable against both manned aircraft and stand off cruise missiles.
Since Russian shtat (TO&E) specifies regimental strength of a regimental command point and 4 firing batteries, each of 4 firing vehicles, each of which carries 8 missiles, plus additional radar, command, and rocket reload vehicles, it is likely that the Iranian order is not “up to 30" but rather 32 Tor-1 systems, or the equivalent of two regiments. This would make sense in view of authoritative reports that the Iranians are planning on establishing a second nuclear plant - one regiment to guard each plant.
The Tor M-1 is an updated variant, Russian designation 9K331, with enhanced capabilities, including the ability to track and engage two targets simultaneously due to the introduction of a twin processor computer module, and increased anti-jamming capabilities across the electronic spectrum. It began entering service in 1991, and thus is not quite so new as some reports indicate.
It is possible that the Iranians might have contracted for a newer update of the Tor M-1, though it is not known to this author whether such an update has been developed.
Some performance statistics from a 2002 Russian open source book (with all implied reservations about accuracy).
Click for a little more information on the Tor-M1/SA-15 system and here for a demo video of the system. Let's all hope our interest in the system turns out to be purely academic, but personally I'm not optimistic.
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Don't miss Mudville's latest .
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Update 2: Two promotions from the comments:
George "Rurik" Mellinger, the source for most of my original information, comments:
With the passage of three months since this story was originally posted here, there are a couple of developing aspects that want comment.
First, in December when this story first began to break, everyone, myself particularly, believed that these missiles would be rushed to Iran on an emergent basis, perhaps even by temporarily withdrawing in-service examples from Russian units. This was done on numerous occasions during the Cold War. I expected these systems to be in Iran and entering crew training/service by April. Glad I was wrong, but puzzled. But is there something else we don't know? Perhaps some problem for the bad guys?
Second: the original announcement specified "about 30" systems. Then I argued that it was more likely 32 systems, rounded down. Now Nicholas Burns gives the figure of 29 systems, seemingly rounded upward. On the base of what I wrote in January, I still think that 32 systems, i.e. two regiments makes more sense. 29 systems is just "organizationally nonsensical". So how much does three systems matter? Is this the fussing of an old bean counter who is all beaned up? Perhaps. But it does raise questions if the information is correct or wrong, or if there is something else going on. If Nick Burns is correct, it suggests one more new thread for the military people to tug at, in hopes of unraveling a new detail. Or did our brains figure the number of systems by calculating backward from announced contractual costs and system prices? Or WTF?
Eric B., who and has, naturally, a keen interest in the current situation, comments:
I suspect that in a few years we will see a re-play of World War 2 in the Middle East. Israel will play a role of Poland and will take the 1st blow. Russia will continue to give material support to Iranian and Arab Nazis until they do something really bad to Russia, like exploding a nuke in Moscow. After that Russia will join the rest of the civilized world. The difference between this war and WW2 will be that the nukes will be going off on both sides.
Eric, I hope you're wrong but I'll concede that you and George are both much more qualified than I am to predict where this is headed. It all has the potential to be very interesting.
Contributed by Bill Faith on November 24, 2006 at 01:05 PM in , , , , |
Comments
Posted by:
I had thought those suckers would have already been received by now. Better never than late, but now its too late, and we'll have to deal with them and sooner the better.
If we'd acted in April like I urged, maybe we could have saved those nice (sic) iranians the shipping charges.
Posted by: | Nov 24, 2006 7:10:36 PM
Posted by:
[Trollshit deleted]
Posted by: | Nov 24, 2006 7:26:36 PM
Posted by: Nikolai gorbachev
I'm only 15 years old but your prdictions of "disaster" are becoming a reality in in a different form. Its now 2008 and Russian economy is starting to fall again. Your articles are persuasive and it inspires me to want to learn more. Unfortunatly the government holds a tight leash on what is said about them. Hopefuly things will change for the better in the future.
Posted by: Nikolai gorbachev | Dec 29, 2008 12:00:54 AM
