RNTF Blog Editor Notes:

  1. Iran made an announcement about a land-based navigation system similar to the recent one below in December of 2013. Interesting that they are making what seems to be the same announcement again.
  2. The description of the system, and the visuals in the original article, makes us think it is a variant of Loran, probably similar to those operated in Russia and China. Also the statement that it “will comply with international standards.”
  3. If it is a variant of Loran and complies with international standards, it should complement Saudi Arabia’s Loran signals in the Persian Gulf.
  4. If you have any information on this system, please send it to [email protected] and we will add it to the very sparse Iran section of our library.

June 1, 2016

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s defense minister on Wednesday unveiled three of the latest technological achievements made by local experts, including the transmitter of an indigenous positioning and navigation system that could be a substitute for the Global Positioning System (GPS).

In a ceremony at Malek-Ashtar University of Technology in Tehran, Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan unveiled three new products developed by the university’s researchers.

The home-made products include a vacuum plasma coating machine, a furnace for vacuum arc remelting (VAR), and the transmitter of a local positioning system (LPS).

Speaking at the ceremony, Dehqan said it was inevitable that the country find a replacement for the GPS, which is currently employed for all positioning, navigation and timing services across the country.

Given the lack of control on the GPS’s accuracy and quality and a possible outage of the system in critical conditions, a national project has been set up to develop an LPS for positioning and timing, he explained.

The minister then hailed Malek-Ashtar University for developing a 1 megawatt transmitter with half-cycle technology for the national project.

Iran is going to establish 5 stations with powerful transmitters in appropriate locations to provide navigation, positioning and timing services in compliance with international standards, he noted.

Iranian military experts and technicians have in recent years made great headways in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the Armed Forces self-sufficient in the arms sphere.

Tehran has always assured other nations that its military might poses no threat to the regional countries, saying that the Islamic Republic’s defense doctrine is entirely based on deterrence.

Read the original article and see more photos.