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  • Iran to world: We can handle an invasion

    Iran Says It Can Handle Any Invasion

    By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press

    TEHRAN, Iran - A top Iranian military official said Tuesday the country can now defend itself against any invasion originating from outside the region — a clear reference to the United States — as it tested a second new radar-avoiding missile.

    The new surface-to-sea missile is equipped with remote-control and searching systems, state-run television reported. It said the new missile, called Kowsar after the name of a river in paradise, was a medium-range weapon that
    Iran had the capability to mass-produce.

    It also asserted that the Kowsar's guidance system could not be scrambled, and it had been designed to sink ships.

    Shortly after the test, the chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, warned that Iran was now able to "confront any extra-regional invasion," referring to the United States without mentioning it by name.

    "The missile command of the Guards' naval force ... via positioning various types of surface-to-sea missiles, is able, while defending the coastlines and islands, to confront any extra-territorial invasion," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Safavi as saying.

    Safavi also called for foreign forces to leave the region. The U.S. 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, from where it patrols the Gulf.

    "Iran wants durable peace in the Persian Gulf and it can't be achieved without foreign forces and those which invaded
    Iraq leaving (the region)," IRNA quoted Safavi as saying.

    On Friday, the country tested the Fajr-3, a missile that it said can avoid radars and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads. Iran also has tested what it calls two new torpedoes.

    The second torpedo, unveiled Monday, was tested in the Straits of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Gulf that is a vital corridor for oil supplies. That seemed to be a clear warning to the United States that Iran believes it has the capability to disable oil tankers moving through the Gulf.

    The Revolutionary Guards, the elite branch of Iran's military, have been holding their maneuvers — code-named the "Great Prophet" — since Friday, touting what they call domestically built technological advances in their armed forces.

    But some military analysts in Moscow said it appears the high-speed torpedoes likely were Russian-built weapons that may have been acquired from China or the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.

    Others have questioned just how radar-evading the missiles are. Iran's radars are not as advanced as those of
    Israel, for example — meaning that perhaps the new weapons can avoid Iran's radar but not more advanced types.

    The United States said Monday — after the second torpedo test — that while Iran may have made "some strides" in its military, it likely is exaggerating its capabilities.

    "We know that the Iranians are always trying to improve their weapons system by both foreign and indigenous measures,"
    Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington. "It's possible that they are increasing their capability and making strides in radar-absorbing materials and technology."

    But "the Iranians have also been known to boast and exaggerate their statements about greater technical and tactical capabilities," he said.

    It has not been possible to verify Iran's claims for the new armaments. But the country has made clear it aims to send a message of strength to the United States amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program.

    The
    U.N. Security Council has demanded Iran give up uranium enrichment, a crucial part of the nuclear process. Washington is pressing for sanctions if Tehran continues its refusal to do so, though U.S. officials have not ruled out military action as an eventual option, insisting they will not allow Iran to gain a nuclear arsenal.

    In Russia, a Kremlin-allied lawmaker on Tuesday criticized the recent torpedo and missile tests as a counterproductive show of might at a time when it should be trying to allay fears that it is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

    "It is clear that Iran is demonstrating its muscle in order to forestall any discussions of a possible operation using force against Iran," Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, was quoted as saying according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

    On Tuesday, state-run television also said the elite Revolutionary Guards had tested what it called a "super-modern flying boat" capable of evading radar. TV showed a brief clip of the boat's launch.

    "Due to its advanced design, no radar at sea or in the air can detect it. It can lift out of the water," the television said. It said the boat was "all Iranian-made and can launch missiles with precise targeting while moving."

    The television showed the boat, looking like an aircraft, taking off from the sea and flying low over the surface of the water. It said the craft can fly with a speed of 100 nautical miles per hour.

    Iran said the torpedo tests were conducted Sunday and Monday. The torpedo — called a "Hoot," or "whale" — is able to move at 223 mph, too fast for any enemy ship to elude.

    Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to improve its combat readiness and test locally made equipment such as missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.

    Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane.

  • #2
    Very good, Just like Saddam thought there would be mass uprisings against US Troops.
    Let the reality hit home hard.

    Comment


    • #3
      First there was Baghdad Bob. Should we call this spokesman Tehran Tom?
      "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

      Comment


      • #4
        well, to be "fair" to the iranians, did anyone really expect them to say otherwise?
        There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

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        • #5
          A question the Iranians must ask themselevs is - how would they fire their new "underwater" miracle missile, after the UASF and USN has sunk their navy?...

          Cheers!...on the rocks!!

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          • #6
            Somewhere at home I have a piece I clipped out of the paper when we were going to "invade" Haiti back when (buddy of mine was flying one of the C-130s en route too) and it goes over what the Haitian military was like.

            When I read the boasting of the Kim Abu Jong Mohammed Ils of the world, I think of that article.

            And I smile. Because in a few important ways, all militaries are Haitian to us.

            -dale

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            • #7
              I wonder whether this is all real or just hype, kind of Iranian propaganda to scare off everyone. I read somewhere that underwater missile they made had a speed of 100 metres per second, under the sea. Can anything actually go 100 m/s under the sea? How many knots is that?
              Last edited by Captain Drunk; 05 Apr 06,, 06:32.

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              • #8
                Supposedly the Russians developed a high speed torpedo in the mid 90s with a reported speed of 220kph, or roughly 130 knots. I have never heard of such thing. There was no follow-up. Or else it would be on the top of the USN's agenda to defeat it.

                I have no idea how they could make something go that fast under water.

                To have a working missile underwater to go that fast is one thing. To have proper guidance is another. Then there's the problem with locating the target in the first place. You can't shoot at something you don't even know if it's there.

                This gesture by the Iranians looks a lot like what Saddam did to try to convince the world how democratic Iraq was. He held a referendum on his leadership, and won by a landslide of 100% to zero. It was a very open and fair election. The results were tallied within minutes of the closing of the polls. The world was totally convinced.
                "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by gunnut
                  To have a working missile underwater to go that fast is one thing. To have proper guidance is another. Then there's the problem with locating the target in the first place.
                  The seeker could rely on the Ship's radar or an airborne radar like a Kamov helicopter from which it is fired. The target coordinates are inserted in missile memory immediately before launch and during the cruise phase the missile could steer itself via inertial platform with autopilot. At a pre determined distance from the target the missile could switch on its active radar seeker and detect the target.

                  But I think this could be some new kind of sea skimming missile meant only for surface ships - something like an SAM or AAM with skies(which explains the 100 m/s speed), that sea skims then hits the hull above the water-line, it surely looks like that from the photos in the newspapers. They even called it a "super-modern flying boat."
                  Last edited by Captain Drunk; 05 Apr 06,, 09:21.

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                  • #10
                    Yay, the Iranian govt. is talking out thier **** again.....
                    Facts to a liberal is like Kryptonite to Superman.

                    -- Larry Elder

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      [Kirk Douglas]"By this time, my lungs were aching for air."[/Kirk Douglas]

                      -dale

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        you know the funniest thing, there's always gonna be an a*s who wants to take this seriously...

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by platinum786
                          you know the funniest thing, there's always gonna be an a*s who wants to take this seriously...
                          Call me an a** then, because I take it seriously, and will happily use their words against them...
                          No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                          I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                          even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                          He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            ‘Two B-2s could take out Iran’s nuclear assets’

                            Wednesday, April 05, 2006

                            ‘Two B-2s could take out Iran’s nuclear assets’

                            WASHINGTON: Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions will be history by the time US President George W Bush leaves office, said a report published here.

                            Veteran foreign correspondent Arnaud de Borchgrave, writing for the United Press International, quotes a “prominent neo-con” with good White House and Department of Defence contacts, as the source of the assertion. Asked what would the US do if sanctions did not make Iran turn away from its nuclear target, the source replied, “B-2s. Two of them could do the job in a single strike against multiple targets.”

                            De Borchgrave writes in an amused vein, “So we looked up B-2s. The US Air Force only has 21 of them. Perhaps price had something to do with it. They came in at $2.2 billion a copy. But they can carry enough ordnance to make Iranians nostalgic for the Shah and his role as the free world’s gendarme in charge of the West’s oil supplies in the Gulf. These stealthy bombers have one major drawback in the Persian magic carpet mode. They can only attack 16 targets simultaneously; one short of the 17 underground nuclear facilities pinned red on Mossad’s target-rich PowerPoint presentations to the political leadership. Presumably, that’s why two B-2s would be required.”

                            De Borchgrave points out that most of Iran’s secret nuclear installations are not only underground, but also close to population centres. “The first pictures of a B-2 raid would be dead women and children on al-Jazeera television newscasts, now as globally ubiquitous as CNN and FOX. The collateral damage would then rival Abu Ghraib’s devastating impact on America’s good name. The perceived American indifference over the loss of Arab lives would now be seen as spreading to another Muslim country,” he writes. The neo-con informant told the correspondent that there is “absolutely no way” Bush will accommodate to an Iranian nuke or two, the way he blinked first with North Korea. Bush uncompromising view of the Iranian nuclear danger and his determination to prevent it by force of two B-2s if necessary is “as solid as his resolve to rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein,” he said.

                            According to de Borchgrave, “This is also the British assessment of Bush’s intentions against Iran, a power whose president has vowed to wipe Israel off the map. Today (April 3, 2006), senior British officials met with defence and intelligence chiefs to assess the consequences of air strikes against Iran - as well as European and global repercussions. Neo-cons are unfazed by the fact that Iran is an ancient civilisation of 70 million people with retaliatory assets that range from a choke-hold on the world’s most important oil route in the Strait of Hormuz, to an anti-US Shiite coalition in Iraq with two private militias, funded and armed by Iran, to terrorist groups throughout the Middle East that have a global reach. Iran is also a power that not only resisted an Iraqi invasion, but fought Saddam Hussein’s legions to a standstill in an eight-year-war of attrition that killed about 1 million soldiers on both sides. If, as Bush has indicated, US troops were still in Iraq in 2009 under the next president, Tehran, in retaliatory animus, would pull out all the stops to ensure a Vietnam-like send-off for remaining US forces in Iraq. For the time being, Tehran is delighted to keep US troops in Iraq as protective cover for Iran as it consolidates its influence throughout 60 percent of the country.”

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                            • #15
                              Who said anything about a (land?) invasion?

                              The 'two B-2' comment is most likely crap. They assume that two 2,000lb JDAMs per facility would be guaranteed to be sufficient. They're probably going to use 5,000lb bunker-busters for some of them, anyway.

                              Regardless, saying it can attack 'only' 16 targets simultaneously is like saying that bodybuilder can lift 'only' 900lbs. Still damn impressive.

                              Here's what I said about the Iranian rocket torpedo thing.

                              I assume it has similar specifications to the supercavitating Russian Shkval torpedo.

                              Which has a 7,000 yard range, and is unguided, so the range is even shorter. I'm not guessing that the Iranians can do any better. If a US Navy battle group on a war footing allows a submarine to come that close, especially after the embencounters they've reputedly had in exercises with OPFOR subs, then it almost deserves to be rudely awakened.

                              Alright, that's extreme but I wouldn't be surprised if the entire Iranian coastline was infested with the ASW assets of the USN and other coalition forces.

                              Yes, it's a risk. But not an insurmountable one by any means.
                              Last edited by HistoricalDavid; 05 Apr 06,, 20:51.
                              HD Ready?

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