Bavar-373 ( fa, باور-۳۷۳, meaning ''Belief'' and ''373'' being
Abjad
An abjad (, ar, أبجد; also abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with other alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels ...
for ''یا رسولالله'' or ''O,
Messenger of Allah!'') is an Iranian long-range road-mobile
surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
system unveiled in August 2016.
Iran describes it as a competitor with the
S-300 missile system
The S-300 (NATO reporting name SA-10 Grumble) is a series of long range surface-to-air missile systems developed and operated by the former Soviet Union, now fielded by the militaries of Russia and Ukraine as well as several other former Easte ...
. It is manufactured by the
Iranian Defence Ministry in cooperation with unspecified local manufacturers and universities.
The system was formally unveiled during a ceremony attended by the
Iranian President
The president of Iran ( fa, رئیسجمهور ایران, Rayis Jomhur-e Irān) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The president is the second highest-ranking official of Iran after the Supreme Leader.
The president ...
Hassan Rouhani
Hassan Rouhani ( fa, حسن روحانی, Standard Persian pronunciation: ; born Hassan Fereydoun ( fa, حسن فریدون, links=no); 12 November 1948) is an Iranian politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021. ...
on 22 August 2019,
and was declared operational the same day.
An upgraded version was unveiled in 2022. Iran described it as a competitor with the
S-400
The S-400 Triumf (russian: link=no, C-400 Триумф – Triumf; translation: Triumph; NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler), previously known as the S-300 PMU-3, is a mobile, surface-to-air missile (SAM) system developed in the 1990s by Russ ...
and said it is capable of shooting down
Fifth-generation fighter
A fifth-generation fighter is a jet fighter aircraft classification which includes major technologies developed during the first part of the 21st century. , these are the most advanced fighters in operation. The characteristics of a fifth-gene ...
aircraft.
History
After the Russian ban on exporting S-300 to Iran (which was lifted in 2015), Iran decided to develop a similar system domestically: "We have planned to build a long-range air defence missile system similar to S-300. By God's grace and by the Iranian engineers' efforts, we will reach self-sufficiency in this regard."
It was later revealed that the name of the system will be Bavar 373. Bavar meaning "belief" and 373 which is the
Abjad number of prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
's name.
Farzad Esmaieli
Farzad Esmaili ( fa, فرزاد اسماعیلی) is an Iranian military officer who formerly held office as the commander of the Air Defense Force. He served in the capacity between 2011 and 2018, when he was succeeded by his deputy Alireza S ...
, commander of
Khatam-ol-Anbia Base told Iranian media that the development of this system started by the direct order of supreme leader
Ayatollah Khamenei
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنهای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...
when the first information about cancellation of S-300 contract was revealed and Iranian personnel were still being trained in Russia on it.
He said the project was in the stage of prototype designing and that it was not going to suffer from the weak points of the S-300. He continued that in the area of detection and radars, a very good point was reached and defense ministry was working on two or three missiles each for a different range and altitude. He said that the design was complete, all the parts were going to be manufactured inside the country and it had a good ability to detect and intercept enemy aircraft. According to Iranian military sources, the system is much more capable than S-300P class.
The first prototype was built on 22 November 2011. Iran announced that the system was designed and built by defense ministry, domestic industries and some Iranian universities. Esmaieli said that Iran doesn't even think about S-300 anymore as Bavar-373 was much more capable. Iranian sources suggest that the Bavar 373 will be mobile, with four missiles loaded on each mobile truck launcher.
The Iranian defense ministry is due to equip the country's Armed Forces with a new long-range air-defence system by 21 March 2013, a senior Iranian military official announced on Saturday August 25, 2012. On 3 September 2012, Farzad Esmaili said that the development of the system was now 30 percent complete. On 1 January 2013, the same commander announced that the sub-systems of the homemade air-defense system are being tested in laboratory.
Esmaili updated his estimate in February 2014 and said the system would be ready by the end of 2015.
On 21 August 2016 Iran revealed components of Bavar-373. According to Janes international: "Bavar-373 displayed on 21 August is clearly a unique Iranian system that appears to reflect extensive investment in its ability to develop phased array radars". The system shows vertical, rectangular launch canister with details suggesting a hot launch system, unlike cold launch used in system such as S-300.
On 16 August 2019, the Iranian MOD said the Bavar 373 was ready to be delivered to the Iranian armed forces. On August 22, 2019, Iran unveiled the Bavar-373 during a ceremony in the presence of President Hassan Rouhani, Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami and other senior military officials. According to the Iranian defence chief, the Bavar-373 "can detect targets or planes at more than 300 km, lock it at about 250 km, and destroy it at 200 km". Iran has for the first time employed its homegrown missile defense system ‘Bavar-373’ in a joint air defense exercise, codenamed ‘Guardians of Velayat Sky-99’, in late October 2020.
In April 2022, reports surfaced which claimed that Iran had transferred a Bavar-373 system to Russia for use in the
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
. Iran Foreign Minister
Amir Abdolhainnan refuted allegations of arms transfers to Russia in a call with Ukraine Foreign Minister
Dmytro Kuleba
Dmytro Ivanovych Kuleba ( uk, Дмитро Іванович Кулеба; born 19 April 1981) is a Ukrainian politician, diplomat, and communications specialist, currently serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is also concurrently a member ...
.
Design
![2019 Sacred Defence Week parade (148)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/2019_Sacred_Defence_Week_parade_%28148%29.jpg)
In April 2015, Iran unveiled some of Bavar's subsystems, which include the
Fakour commanding and smart control system which has the ability to collect information from all sources relevant to air defence, including passive and active military radars (such as the
Mersad
Mersad ( Persian: مرصاد, meaning 'Ambush') is an Iranian low- to mid-range air defense system developed in 2010. It fires Shahin (Falcon) missiles which are reverse-engineered, domestically upgraded versions of the American MIM-23 Hawk sur ...
), signal surveillance, missile systems and commanding and control systems.
The
Rasoul advanced communications system is for encoding information, connecting the country's infrastructure and transferring radar information from the battle scene to commanding centres.
Bavar-373 will utilize Sayyad-4 missiles, which are contained in two rectangular launch canisters. No formal information was given about this missile but it appears from news photos that Sayyad-4 is similar to Sayyad-3 in wings and control surfaces, however it varies lightly in frontal shape.
The canisters containing the
Sayyad-4
Sayyad ( fa, صیاد, Hunter) is a serie of solid fuel surface-to-air missiles (SAM) manufactured by Iran.
Sayyad-1
Sayyad-1 is the Iranian upgraded version of the Chinese HQ-2 SAM, however it differs from the Chinese versions in guidance ...
missiles are to be carried on the
Zoljanah 10×10 truck.
Bavar-373 uses a
phased array radar
A phaser is an electronic sound processor used to filter a signal, and it has a series of troughs in its frequency-attenutation graph. The position (in Hz) of the peaks and troughs are typically modulated by an internal low-frequency oscillat ...
for tracking aerodynamic targets and ballistic missiles in medium to long ranges, mounted on the
ZAFAR heavy truck. One of the radars used in Bavar-373 is ''Meraj''-4 (Ascension), a phased array radar with range of 450 km which uses
fuzzy logic
Fuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic in which the truth value of variables may be any real number between 0 and 1. It is employed to handle the concept of partial truth, where the truth value may range between completely true and completely ...
techniques to spot targets. Meraj can track up to 200 targets simultaneously.
Specifications
Bavar 373 system is capable of detecting up to 100 targets, tracking 60 of them and engage with six concurrently.
Bavar has an
S-band
The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the conventional ...
acquisition radar for detection, and a (shorter-range)
X-Band
The X band is the designation for a band of frequencies in the microwave radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some cases, such as in communication engineering, the frequency range of the X band is rather indefinitely set at approxim ...
fire control radar for missile guidance. Both are
Active Electronically Scanned Array
An active electronically scanned array (AESA) is a type of phased array antenna, which is a computer-controlled array antenna in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the an ...
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
s.
Bavar can hit targets up to an altitude of 30 kilometers.
Variants
Upgraded version
In comments at a televised interview held in August 2021, the former head of the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Aerospace Organization Brigadier General
Mahdi Farahi said local experts are developing a new generation of Bavar-373. The latest version of Bavar-373, which will be unveiled soon, has capabilities that outstrip the
S-400
The S-400 Triumf (russian: link=no, C-400 Триумф – Triumf; translation: Triumph; NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler), previously known as the S-300 PMU-3, is a mobile, surface-to-air missile (SAM) system developed in the 1990s by Russ ...
, General Farahi added. He noted that Iran is making advances in the missile defense industry and can achieve considerable progress in this sector. The general highlighted the Islamic Republic’s advances in missile production, saying the country has made a special liquid fuel for missiles that is as durable as solid fuels, allowing the projectiles to be stored for longer periods of time. The new system has been tested as of October 2022 with a 300 km range.
The system has also a detection range risen from 350 to 450 km and a tracking range increased from 260 to 400 km. Its solid fuel missile, named
Sayyad-4B
Sayyad ( fa, صیاد, Hunter) is a serie of solid fuel surface-to-air missiles (SAM) manufactured by Iran.
Sayyad-1
Sayyad-1 is the Iranian upgraded version of the Chinese HQ-2 SAM, however it differs from the Chinese versions in guidance an ...
, was revealed on 6 November 2022.
Export version
AD-200 is the export version of Bavar 373.
Operators
; -
Islamic Republic of Iran Air Defense Force
"And You Did Not Throw When You Threw, But God Did Throw"
, start_date = 1933–1954 (Part of Ground Force)1954–2008 (Part of Air Force)2008–Present (As Separate Force)
, branch =
, type = Air defence
, command_structure=Artesh
, country ...
; -
Syrian Air Defense Force
The Syrian Air Defense Force (SyADF), officially the Syrian Arab Air Defense Force ( ar, قوات الدفاع الجوي العربي السوري) is an independent command within the Syrian Armed Forces. It is responsible for protecting the S ...
See also
*
Equipment of the Iranian Army
This page includes weapons used by both the Ground Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army and the Ground Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
From 1925 to the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran was primarily equipped with Wester ...
*
Military of Iran
The Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, are the combined military forces of Iran, comprising the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (''Arteš''), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (''Sepâh'') and the Law Enforcement Force (Police).
Iran ...
*
Raad
*
Khordad 15
*
Sayyad-2
Sayyad ( fa, صیاد, Hunter) is a serie of solid fuel surface-to-air missiles (SAM) manufactured by Iran.
Sayyad-1
Sayyad-1 is the Iranian upgraded version of the Chinese HQ-2 SAM, however it differs from the Chinese versions in guidance a ...
*
Ya Zahra
References
{{commons category, Bavar-373
21st-century surface-to-air missiles
Surface-to-air missiles of Iran
Military equipment introduced in the 2010s
Anti-ballistic missiles of Iran