The Iranian defense minister has announced that the construction and testing of the country’s indigenous semi-heavy submarine Fateh (Conqueror) has been completed and will be delivered to naval forces upon being armed.

Speaking on the sidelines of Iran’s Seventh Scientific Command and Control Conference on Tuesday in Tehran, Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan further stated that the testing operation of the first model of the submarine was successfully completed and Fateh will be delivered to the naval forces of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) after it is adequately equipped and armed. Commenting on Iran’s capabilities in the field of launching satellites and exploratory rockets into space, Dehqan added that some of the exploratory rockets are round-trip launches, including an upcoming launch, in which a living creature will be sent into space and then returned to earth to examine the impact of environmental factors on it. The Iranian defense minister also announced that the country’s experts are prepared to launch a satellite into space in the near future, noting that their objective is to place our satellites into higher orbits for longer periods of time and manage their movement paths. Brigadier General Dehqan went on to point out that the production of jet engines for indigenous Iranian pilotless drones are also on the agenda of the country’s defense industries. He added, however, that most of the domestic drones are equipped with piston engines, “although we do have drones that fly with jet engines as well.” Iran launched its first indigenous satellite, Omid (Hope), in 2009. The country also sent its first bio-capsule containing living creatures into the space in February 2010, using the indigenous Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) carrier. Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which was set up in 1959./mrkd