Has Iran built this missile defense system by copying or reverse-engineering the Russian S-200 system?
Or, is it built from their own research?
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Sign up to join this communityHas Iran built this missile defense system by copying or reverse-engineering the Russian S-200 system?
Or, is it built from their own research?
Well, the AD-200 is the export version of the Bavar-373. The latter project was started after Russia refused to sell more S-300 to Iran (around 2011), so it was definitely intended to supplant the S-300.
As for originality, details are scarce, but it seems to include a phased array that is more modern than on the older S-300 systems, but one has to keep in mind that Russia also has various iterations of this system.
The missiles (Sayyad-3) are also not exactly identical:
The canisters appeared to be approximately 6.5 m in length, which would make the Sayyad-3 shorter than the 7.5 m-long 48N6 missile used with the S-300PMU2.
Russia eventually changed its mind (around 2015) and sold Iran some S-300PMU2, which seems to be the most modern export version of that system. But Iran also continued with its indigenous project.
Probably both own research and partial copy of S-200. At least they differ in reported diameter - this site (in Russian) quotes diameter of S-200 missile at 770 mm (0.77 m), your quote states diameter at 513 mm. This alone excludes exact copying of S-200, but no data if at least some elements from S-200 were copied, like say a radar.