Baku, Azerbaijan, March 5
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has built the country's first hypersonic wind tunnel for testing missiles and spacecraft, Iranian Tasnim news agency reported on March 5.
The device which operates at the speed of Mach 8 has been made by experts of the IRGC Imam Hussein University in Tehran.
A wind tunnel is a tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects. A wind tunnel consists of a closed tubular passage with the object under test mounted in the middle.
Full-scale aircraft or vehicles are sometimes tested in large wind tunnels. In addition to vehicles, wind tunnels are used to study the airflow around large structures such as bridges or office buildings.
Last year, IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari announced that Iran has designed a hypersonic wind tunnel operating at the speed of Mach 8.
Iran's previous wind tunnels operated at the speed of lower than Mach 3 and the country had to send its missile abroad for testing.
The new hypersonic tunnel enables Iran to protect sensitive information of the indigenously-designed and built missiles and spacecraft as well as reducing expenses.
Iranian media outlets report that Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and has attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems, in recent years. Tehran established an arms development program during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s to counter the weapons embargo imposed on it by the U.S. and its Western allies.
Since 1992, Iran has manufactured its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, radars, boats, submarines and fighter planes. Iran also unveiled its first domestically-manufactured long-range Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in 2010.
Tehran has repeatedly assured other nations that its military strength poses no threat to other countries since the Islamic Republic's defense doctrine is based entirely on deterrence.