NICOSIA, Cyprus — Iran today test-fired a Soviet-made SA-6 anti-aircraft missile, acknowledging for the first time that it had acquired the advanced, long-range weapon.
The acquisition of the SA-6 was believed to be part of a $6-billion defense and industrial deal signed by Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani in Moscow in June, 1989.
A Tehran radio broadcast, monitored in Cyprus, said the surface-to-air missile was fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps at the Fajr missile base.
It did not say where the base was, or how many of the advanced weapons the Iranians have bought.
The acquisition of the radar-guided SA-6s is a big boost for Iran's badly depleted military, which suffers from a chronic shortage of advanced weapons.
