Iran today announced a short-range ballistic missile model equipped with a "new generation" lighter and longer-range engine.

The Sepahnews website of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) says the Raad-500 rocket uses new Zoheir engines made of composite material, which is lighter than previous steel models.

Radd is "a new generation rocket as light as half the Fateh-110 missile but has a range of over 200 km", IRGC said. Fateh-110 is a land-based ballistic missile first announced in 2002. The latest generation of this model has a range of 300 km.

New technologies that make the rocket "cheaper, lighter, faster and more accurate" can be applied to all Iranian missile classes, IRGC commander General Hossein Salami said.

Tensions between Iran and the United States have been increasing steadily since May 2018 after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear treaty and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran.

Washington has stated it aims to curb Iran's ballistic missile program as well as to prevent its "unstable acts" in the region. The US has since "exerted maximum pressure" on Iran through sanctions. Tehran responded by gradually withdrawing its commitments under the nuclear deal.

Iran has long maintained that it has no intention of owning nuclear weapons and that its aerospace activities only serve peaceful purposes, in full compliance with the UN Security Council treaties. .