August 5, 2006 :: Bloomberg :: News
Iran is building up its own missile industry using Chinese and Russian technology, reports
Bloomberg. The Islamic Republic began developing its manufacturing capabilities in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War. With the threat from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq now gone, Tehran has “every intention of becoming a major regional power,” according to William Cohen, secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton, and intends to become self-sufficient in the production of weaponry, in particular ballistic missiles. Iran therefore no longer simply relies on imports from China, Russia, and North Korea, and has become adept at copying or even improving on those countries’ technologies. “The Iranians are at a stage now where they can build most of these weapons themselves locally,” said Guy Ben-Ari, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Among Iran’s homemade missiles that it has exported to Hezbollah and perhaps other Islamic terrorist organizations are the Zelzal-2 short-range ballistic missile, which carries a 600-kilogram warhead; the Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 short-range ballistic missiles, which carry 90- and 175-kilogram warheads respectively; and the Noor (Tondar) radar-guided anti-ship cruise missile, an Iranian copy of the Chinese C-802 (CSS-N-8).
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