Iran Tests Solid-Fuel Missile Engine
May 31, 2005 :: New York Times :: News
In what constitutes a major development for its missile program, Iran has reported success in its test of a solid-fueled ballistic missile engine which is probably designed for a newer version of the Shahab missile family. The range of the solid fuel motor is purported to exceed the stated 2,000 km range of the existing, but gradually upgraded, Shahab-3. Such a reach could give Iran the capability to target all of Israel, Turkey, much of India, parts of Germany and China, and U.S. forces stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Persian Gulf. According to Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani, the test was “100 percent successful.”
If the Iranian claims are accurate, the test represents a significant breakthrough for Iranian missile technology. Solid fuel offers abundant advantages over liquid fuel. It provides its missiles with greater accuracy, faster mobility, quicker deployment, and a longer shelf life. Iran seems likely to arm these missiles with nuclear warheads. Al-Jazeera quoted one Western diplomat as noting, “Why develop a Rolls Royce to only deliver a pizza?” (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Iran, Testing - Foreign
» Missile details: Shahab-6, Small ICBM, SS-1A
Iran Tests Suggest Possible EMP Trials
April 27, 2005 :: Jane's Information Group :: News
The May edition of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets reports that recent missile tests by Iran may have been part of the development of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) warhead. Jane’s cites testimony from the Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security from March 8, 2005, by Peter Pry and Lowell Wood. Wood is a member of the Congressional EMP Commission, which released its important report on the EMP threat in July 2004.
Some of Iran’s tests of its Shahab-3 had been terminated before the completion of their ballistic trajectories, that is, exploding in mid-flight by what appeared to be a self-destruct mechanism. Iran has nevertheless described the tests as fully “successful.” Pry noted that the apparent contradiction would make sense “if Iran were practicing the execution of an EMP attack.” Lowell Wood is quoted as having testified to the subcommittee that such an attack upon the United States could keep off most electrical functions for a time period of a few hours or decades, depending on how it was executed. Wood also warned the subcommittee that such an EMP warhead could be delivered against the United States by “a Scud missile launched from a freighter off the Atlantic coast.”
Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, wrote about the EMP threat in the April 15 edition of the Washington Post.
Joseph Farah from World Net Daily carries a related story today, available online. (Link)
» July 22, 2004: EMP Commission releases report
» April 15, 2005: Washington Post, Sen. Jon Kyl on the EMP threat
» April 27, 2005: World Net Daily on possible Iran EMP preparations
» Full text of The Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack
» More stories on: Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Weapons, Iran, Ship-Launched Threat, Terrorism
» Missile details: Shahab-6, Small ICBM
Bolton Blasts Chinese Missile Proliferation
February 8, 2005 :: AP :: News
Undersecretary of State John Bolton publicly blasted China for its persistent and considerable transfers of missile technology to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism, and other rogue states, in violation of its own non-proliferation pledges. Bolton delivered the firm remarks at a Japan-sponsored conference in Tokyo.
Bolton warned that the US would move aggressively to further sanction Chinese companies providing such transfers, as it has repeatedly in recent years, which he said also included Pakistan, North Korea and Libya:
“On numerous occasions we have expressed our concern about these entities to the Chinese government and have asked Beijing to subject exports by these serial proliferators to persistent and close scrutiny…Unfortunately, we continue to see transfers by these serious proliferators of missile-related items to rogue states and outposts of tyranny such as Iran.”
Update: February 9: Chinese arms control official Liu Zhixian explained that China exercises strict controls any transfers of missile technology to rogue states. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: China, Iran, Proliferation
Claim: Iran Developing Nuclear Trigger
February 4, 2005 :: LA Times :: News
An Iranian exile group recently alleged that the country, which publicly disavows the ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, has been conducting tests of a nuclear triggering mechanism. Speaking at a news conference in Paris, the National Council of Resistance of Iran asserted that Iran “is getting very close to the point of industrial production” of a neutron initiator. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Iran, Nuclear Weapons
Russia to Launch Iranian Satellites Within Months
February 2, 2005 :: Kommersant :: News
In January of 2004, Iran declared that within the next 18 months it would launch a satellite into orbit using its own rocket systems and doing so from its own territory, becoming the first Islamic state to do so. Recently, however, reports the Russian Kommersant, Iran has signed an agreement with Russia which will permit it to launch two satellites, named Mesbah and Sinah-1, from the Russian Plesetsk launching site. According to the Russian newspaper, Moscow persuaded Iran to do so to avoid a harsh American reaction. Both are said to be spy satellites. The Mesbah satellite is said to orbit at 900km. The Sinah-1 is said to weight some 20 kg. Other sources also refer to cooperation on a Zohreh telecommunications satellite, but Kommersant claims this project may have been a diversion.
Iran would probably have launched the satellites using its own Shahab missile, which it claims is not intended for distances even sufficient to reach Europe. A ballistic missile capable of putting a satellite into orbit, however, is also capable of traveling long distances, indeed, nearly anywhere on earth, notes Kommersant. Kommersant also claims that Italy, China, Mongolia, Pakistan and Thailand were each assisting Iran in preparations for the launch, but that they have since withdrawn such help out of concern for U.S. sanctions. Although Iran was also negotiating with China for such a launch, Russia is said to have stepped in to help Iran complete the project. The launch is reported to take place in the second quarter of 2005, perhaps by May, and will use the Russian Kosmos-3M launcher.
If one gathers nothing else from this and other news of similar proliferation and military ties, it should be that Russia and China both continue to project power into the middle east, and are specifically interested in making Iran a strategic ally. Both countries do so in order to counter American force. Neither country is a friend, or ally, of the United States. Both are rather strategic competitors. Any attempt to confront the Iranian regime, its sponsorship of terrorism, its nuclear and other WMD programs, and its ballistic missile programs, would be strongly opposed by both countries. (Article, Link)
» Geostrategy Direct on Iran-Russia satellite cooperation
» Nov. 29, 2004: Aviation Weekly & Space Technology: Iranian space interests disguise strategic missile ambitions
» Sep. 20, 2004: Iran announces plan to launch satellite
» Middle East Newsline on Iranian-Russian satellite launch plans
» More stories on: China, Iran, Russia, Space-Based Systems
Iran Affirms Importance of Missiles
February 28, 2005 :: BBC Worldwide Monitoring :: News
Speaking on February 26 to a gathering of managers of the Aerospace Industry Organization, Iranian Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani called missile technology the most important part of Iran’s military forces, according to a report translated from the Iranian Mehr news agency. The Defense Minister reportedly said that with these programs Iran had laid the foundations for the ability to defend itself in even the most difficult situations. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Iran
Ukraine Reportedly Sold Nuclear-Capable Cruise Missiles to China, Iran
February 2, 2005 :: News
Ukrainian lawmaker Hryhoriy Omelchenko recently wrote a letter to newly elected President Viktor Yushchenko claiming that the government of Yushchenko’s predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, in collaboration with members of the military and the state arms company UkrSpetzExport sold some 20 air-launched Kh-55 and Kh-55M cruise missiles, which had the capability to carry nuclear weapons. Of these, six were sent to Iran and six to China, all between 1999 and 2001. The transfers, if true, would violate various non-proliferation agreements. Kuchma’s government is also believed to have sold advanced radar systems to Iraq in 2002, despite UN sanctions to the contrary. An American embassy spokesman in Kiev was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the United States was “aware of the reports” of such sales and took them “very seriously.”
The Kh-55 cruise missile has a range of 3,000 kilometers, is capable of carrying a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead, and was developed for use on Russian Tupolev long-range bombers. In June 2004, Russia tested an air-launched Kh-55 which may well have been the Kh-55. (Article, Link)
» June 29, 2004: Russia tests air-launched cruise missile
» More stories on: China, Former Soviet Republics, Iran, Proliferation
Iranian Nuclear Warhead Design
January 24, 2005 :: Middle East Newsline :: News
Middle East Newsline reports that the United States intelligence community has obtained Iranian plans which are part of a project to develop a nuclear warhead. The plans reportedly include over 1,000 pages of drawings and documents. The Washington Post reported on these plans on November 19. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Iran, Nuclear Weapons
U.S. Sanctions Major Chinese Firms for Proliferation to Iran
January 18, 2005 :: New York Times :: News
Earlier this month, the State Department yet again sanctioned seven Chinese companies for their illicit proliferation of ballistic missile aid to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. Sanctions were also applied against one firm based in Taiwan and one in North Korea. The notice in the Federal Register said that the nine were being penalized for transferring to Iran “equipment and technology controlled under multilateral export control lists.”
As President Bush observed a number of years ago, China is a “strategic competitor” of the United States. It would be well to remember this as we formulate a more aggressive anti-proliferation policies. The real sources of proliferation are Russia and China. It is from these countries that Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea received the vast amount of missile technology and equipment. As the New York Times notes, the most recent round of sanctions will probably have little effect on any of these companies’ financial well being. And the companies’ ties to the Chinese government and military make such financial sanctions even less dubious of success. At some level, a policy decision to proliferate such technologies to these regimes has been made. Unless the Chinese government changes that policy, or unless we are willing to boldly identify it and employ more serious sanctions, we must resign ourselves to the inevitability of such proliferation. (Link)
» August 30, 2004: Photographs suggest changes to Shahab reentry device
» January 18, 2005: China says sanctions “not wise”
» September 27, 2004: Seven Chinese companies sanctioned
» November 18, 2004: Powell claims Iran modifying Shahabs to carry nuclear warhead
» More stories on: China, Iran, North Korea, Proliferation
L.A. Businessman Charged with Aiding Iranian Missile Program
January 12, 2005 :: Newsday :: News
An Iranian-born American businessman has been charged with smuggling equipment to Iran to aid in their ballistic missile programs, according to a report by Newsday. Mohammad Farahbakhsh of Los Angeles has been charged with sending “pressure sensors and other equipment from Stamford to the United Arab Emirates, where they were to be shipped to Iran,” specifically to a company, the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which has previously been sanctioned twice by the U.S. government for aiding Iranian missile development. Farahbakhsh is reportedly a so-called “dual citizen” in both Iran and the United States. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Iran, Proliferation
