The Iranians either want to escalate their bluffs on military capability or they have some extraordinary timing on R&D. Teheran announced the test of another missile within a week of what they claim to have been a successful test of a multiple-target Fajr-3 missile, only this weapon aims at naval forces:

Iran said Sunday that it had test-fired what it described as a sonar-evading underwater missile just two days after it announced that it had fired a new missile that could carry multiple warheads and evade radar systems.

The new missile is among the world's fastest and can outpace an enemy warship, Gen. Ali Fadavi of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards told state television.

General Fadavi said only one other country, Russia, had a missile that moved underwater as fast as the Iranian one, which he said had a speed of about 225 miles per hour. State television showed what it described as the missile being fired.

It's hard to know what to make of the sudden spate of missile claims by the Iranians. This started when the West pressed the IAEA to make a determination last year on the efforts by Iran to hide their nuclear program and their non-compliance with the NPT. Around that time, the Iranians tested the new Shahab-3 missile, which they claim can reach targets as far away as London. Now that the UNSC has given them 30 days to comply with the IAEA and come back into compliance with the NPT, the Iranians have supposedly tested two new and completely different missile systems successfully within the past week. It's not impossible to have done so, but that might even tax the Pentagon a bit; one can imagine that the Iranians would have more trouble with that level of multitasking.

Their expanded comments on this don't add much to their credibility. At first, they claim that the missile evades sonar -- which sounds an awful lot like their claim last week about the Fajr-3 evading radar. The Iranians then concede that some forces might be able to track the inbound underwater missile, but that it moves so fast that it won't make any difference. At a claimed 225 MPH, they would be correct; large battleships and submarines would not be able to outrun it and would be unlikely to outmaneuver it. However, surface-to-surface missiles like the Harpoon travel much faster (almost supersonic) and have better guidance capabilities. Torpedos and underwater missiles have their use, but in terms of missile technology, it doesn't represent a great leap forward, at least not towards the surface ships likely to have primary duty in blockading Iran if hostilities break out.

The most likely explanation falls closer to bluff than reality. The continued boasting of superweapon technology combined with the diplomatic isolation Iran has experienced makes this sound like the mullahcracy is willing to pull out all stops in order to intimidate the West into backing off of Teheran. The mullahs have overplayed the threats at this point.

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Iran is in the news for more than a few reasons, one of which is its development of a new torpedo that apparently scares civilians. Take a deep breath. Weapons systems are developed continually. The testing of a system is... [Read More]

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» Perspective: Iran and New Weapons from The Rolling Barrage
Iran is in the news for more than a few reasons, one of which is its development of a new torpedo that apparently scares civilians. Take a deep breath. Weapons systems are developed continually. The testing of a system is... [Read More]

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