Iranian multiple warhead missiles targeting US bases
Iranian Fateh-110 series Missiles with alleged Multiple warhead capabilties. Source FARS news agency 3-5-14.
Iran’s Revolutionary guard unveiled a new class of missiles which it alleges has multiple warhead capabilities. In our March NER article, has Iran Developed Nuclear Weapons in North Korea? , We reported sources suggesting that the Islamic regime , in cooperation with North Korea, were testing a nuclear equipped MIRV warhead and that Iran might have the capability of fitting one on a ballistic missile within 4 to 6 months.
If this announcement today by Iran’s FARS agency is confirmed, it will demonstrate that the P5+1 negotiators were blindsided by Iranian demands to exclude ballistic missile development. As Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman said in a US Senate Foreign Relations hearings in early February 2014 before Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez: “It is true that in these first six months we’ve not shut down all of their production of any ballistic missile that could have anything to do with delivery of a nuclear weapon.” Jennifer Rubin in her Washington Post blog, “Right Turn” cited Sen. Menendez in his speech before AIPAC’s Annual Policy Conference yesterday, saying:
Menendez repeated a warning he recently gave on the Senate floor that it will “be too late” to enact sanctions six months from now. That reality hangs over AIPAC, the Iran and P5+1 talks, and Congress: Iran by achieving partial relaxation of sanctions and by biding time to continue missile development and advanced centrifuge research is quickly becoming the nuclear-capable state Menendez vows to prevent.
What will the Obama West Wing do in the face of this challenge by the Iranian regime pursuing its diplomatic track? WE don’t pretend to know. However, both sponsors of the Nuclear Weapons Free Iran Act, S. 1881, Sens. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) do. That is to overwhelm Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and move on passing the standby sanctions authority. Even that may be “too late” given today’s announcement. Moreover, with the Israel Navy interception of rockets bound for Gaza in the Red Sea today, Iran is pursuing all means possible to create a nuclear equipped ICBM umbrella demonstrating its hegemony in the global Islamic terrorist war against Israel, the US, Middle East allies and the West.
Those dangers were highlighted in Israeli PM Netanyahu’s speech at the AIPAC Conference yesterday when he said:
Iran says it only wants a peaceful nuclear program. So why is it building a heavy water reactor, which has no purpose in a peaceful nuclear program? Iran says it has nothing to hide. So why does it ban inspectors from its secret military sites? Why doesn’t it divulge its military nuclear secret — the secrets of its military nuclear activities? They absolutely refuse to say a word about that. Iran says it’s not building nuclear weapons. So why does it continue to build ICBMs, intercontinental ballistic missiles, whose only purpose is to carry nuclear warheads?
See, unlike Scud missiles, that are limited to a range of a few hundred miles, ICBMs can cross vast oceans. And they can strike, right now or very soon, the eastern seaboard of the United States — Washington — and very soon after that, everywhere else in the United States, up to L.A.
And the important point to make is this: Iran’s missiles can already reach Israel, so those ICBMs that they’re building, they’re not intended for us. You remember that beer commercial, “this Bud’s for you”? Well, when you see Iran building ICBMs, just remember, America, that Scud’s for you.
Note these excerpts from this AP Report on today’s announcement from Tehran:
At a ceremony Wednesday, Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan presented a delivery of four types of ballistic missiles — named Qiam, Qadr H1, Fateh-110 and Persian Gulf. The Qadr H1 and Qiam, he said, are equipped with multiple warheads, greatly boosting their destructive power.
“These missiles are able to hit and destroy enemy targets with precision, and they meet a variety of the armed forces’ needs,” Dehghan said. “The weapons have strengthened Iran’s deterrence power and military might,” he added, in comments were posted on the Guard’s website.
Iran regularly announces breakthroughs in military technology that are impossible to independently verify. But the Pentagon released a rare public report in 2012 noting significant advances in Iranian missile technology, acknowledging that Tehran has improved their accuracy and firing capabilities.
Dehghan said Western sanctions have not stopped Iran from boosting its ability to deter its enemies, a reference to Israel and the U.S.
“Comprehensive sanctions enforced strictly by enemies … didn’t cause the slightest crack in our determination and will,” he said.
Many of Iran’s missiles use solid fuel, or a combination of both solid and liquid fuel, improving the accuracy of the weapons.
Iran has a variety of missiles, some with a reported range of 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), enough to reach much of the Middle East. Military commanders have described them as a strategic asset and a strong deterrent, capable of hitting U.S. bases or Israel in the event of a strike on Iran.
Semiofficial Fars news agency provided details on the medium-range Qiam missile for the first time, saying it was the latest missile developed by Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, the father of Iran’s missile program who died in a testing accident in 2011.
Qiam, Fars said, was specifically built to target U.S. bases in the region, which he said have encircled Iran. With a range of 800 kilometers, the 6-ton missile has been described in Iranian media as ushering in a new era of ballistic missile production for the country.
“It sums up the country’s 25-year defense industry experience in aerospace. Qiam’s wingless design is one of the characteristics that gives it greater speed and the capability to be launched from various launchers,” Fars said.
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.
