IMRA Newsletter
Iran conducts Battlefield Test of Shihab-3 Missile, spends $1.5 Billion on WMD Warhead
Geostrategy-Direct, www.geostrategy-direct.com
December 28, 2004
Iran has successfully tested its enhanced intermediate-range missile under battlefield conditions.
U.S. officials said Iran demonstrated its ability to fire a Shihab-3 missile within hours of an order. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps tested the Shihab-3 on Oct. 20 under the most realistic battle conditions yet, officials said.
Iranian Defense Ministry sources also provided details of Teheran's efforts to develop a weapons of mass destruction warhead for the enhanced Shihab-3 missile. The sources told the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat on Nov. 26 that the Zelzal comprised a five-stage program to develop a biological, chemical and nuclear warhead.
The sources were quoted as saying that the warhead was developed for the Shihab-3, which traveled 1,990 kilometers during the October launch. The project cost $1.5 billion, derived from oil revenues, they said.
A WMD warhead has also been developed for the new Makar rocket. The sources told A-Sharq Al Awsat that the 355-mm rocket could carry a biological or chemical warhead.
"The test was meant to show everybody of Iran's capability to fire the missile at a moment's notice," an official said.
Officials said the October Shihab-3 launch was not meant to achieve the maximum range of the missile, which flew about 1,300 kilometers, but is capable of continuing for an additional several hundred kilometers.
"They didn't seek to obtain the maximum range," the official said. "When you try to get to the maximum range, you have a certain telemetry that we didn't detect."
The Oct. 20 launch was the first actual test firing of the enhanced Shihab-3 missile under battlefield conditions. Officials said the modified Shihab contained a range of Iranian-developed subsystems, including a liquid-fuel engine.
In August, the enhanced Shihab-3 was used in a command and control demonstration that did not seek to fly the missile to any significant range.
Officials said the missile was aborted within seconds of launch.
U.S. officials confirmed the Iranian claim that Teheran could begin serial production of the Shihab-3. But they said they doubted this would take place over the next few months as development of the intermediate-range was continuing.
A-Sharq Al Awsat quoted the Defense Ministry sources as saying that in late 2003 Iran achieved the capability to produce what they termed small atomic weapons.
The sources said Iran's aim was to produce a nuclear warhead, a process that they estimated would take no more than 18 months.