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West doubts Iran missile claims
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| 10 April 2006 |
By Alon Ben-David JDW Correspondent
Tel Aviv
Additional reporting Richard Scott, JDW Naval Consultant
London
Western intelligence sources have expressed doubts over Iranian claims regarding a series of indigenously developed missiles presented during the 'Holy Prophet' manoeuvres conducted on 31 March-6 April in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz.
The exercise began with a launch of what was described by Iranian Television as "Fajr-3 - a radar-evading missile capable of hitting multiple targets". However, while the 'Fajr-3' is generally accepted as the designation of an Iranian-developed 240 mm unguided rocket with a range of 70 km (and is also the designation of an older Iranian light aircraft), Western intelligence sources claim that what was actually tested was a Shahab 2 short-range ballistic missile, a variant of the Russian 'Scud C'.
"Developing a manoeuvring stealthy ballistic missile with multiple warheads is beyond Iran's technological capabilities," Uzi Rubin, former director of Israel's Ballistic Missiles Defence Organisation, told Jane's. "I think the Iranians went too far with their claims, considering that US satellites could easily detect and classify any missile launched there. It could be that the excessive description was meant to uplift internal morale."
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