Bavar-373 (, meaning ''Belief'' and ''373'' being

Abjad numerals The Abjad numerals, also called Hisab al-Jummal (, ), are a decimal alphabetic numeral system/alphanumeric code, in which the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet are assigned numerical values. They have been used in the Arab world, Arabic-speaking ...

for ''یا رسول‌الله'' or ''O,

Messenger of Allah Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, ...

!'') 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 or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

system unveiled in August 2016. Iran describes it as a competitor of 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 by the former Soviet Union. It was produced by NPO Almaz for the Soviet Air Defence Forces to defend against air raids and cruise ...

. 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 the Islamic Republic of Iran () is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the second highest-ranking official, after the supreme leader. The first election was held in 1980 and was won by Abulhassan Banisa ...

Hassan Rouhani Hassan Rouhani (; born Hassan Fereydoun, 12 November 1948) is an Iranian peoples, Iranian politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021. He is also a sharia lawyer ("Wakil"), academic, former diplomat and Islamic cl ...

on 22 August 2019, and was declared operational the same day. An upgraded version was unveiled in 2022. Iran described it as a competitor to the

S-400 The S-400 Triumf ( – 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 Russia's NPO Almaz as an upgrade to the S ...

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 (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

's name. Farzad Esmaieli, 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 Ali Hosseini Khamenei (; born 19 April 1939) is an Iranian cleric and politician who has served as the second supreme leader of Iran since 1989. He previously served as the third president from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei's tenure as Supreme Leader, ...

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. 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". On 16 August 2019, the Iranian MOD said the Bavar 373 was ready to be delivered to the Iranian armed forces. 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, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. Iran Foreign Minister Amir Abdolhainnan refuted allegations of arms transfers to Russia in a call with Ukraine Foreign Minister

Dmytro Kuleba Dmytro Ivanovych Kuleba ( ; born 19 April 1981) is a Ukrainian politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was concurrently a member of the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine. The youngest foreign affai ...

Design

Bavar-373 utilizes 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 missiles are 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 by creating a series of peaks and troughs in the frequency spectrum. The position of the peaks and troughs of the waveform being affected is typically modulated by an interna ...

for tracking aerodynamic targets and ballistic missiles in medium to long ranges, mounted on the ZAFAR heavy truck. Iran claims that it can track up to 200 targets simultaneously.

Operators

; - Islamic Republic of Iran Air Defense Force

References

{{commons category, Bavar-373 21st-century surface-to-air missiles Surface-to-air missiles of Iran Military equipment introduced in the 2010s Guided missiles of Iran Weapons of Iran

History

Design

Operators

See also

References