Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Tests Submarine to Surface Missile

Iran’s army naval forces fire a ground-to-sea missile during a large maneuver in the Sea of Oman, near Jask, southern Iran, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006.

AP: Iran tests submarine-to-surface missile

Iran test fired a new submarine-to-surface missile during war games in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, a show of military might amid a standoff with the West over its nuclear activities.

A brief video clip showed the long-range missile, called Thaqeb, or Saturn, exiting the water and hitting a target on the water’s surface within less than a mile. The test came as part of large-scale military exercises that began Aug. 19.

“The army successfully test fired a top speed long-range sub-to-surface missile off the Persian Gulf,” the navy commander, Gen. Sajjad Kouchaki, said on state-run television.

Iran in a blatant show of military force is demonstrating their missile prowess in order to scare the world (most notably the Europeans) that Iran WILL PLAY THE “OIL CARD.”

And now Iran adds submarine missiles to attack surface ships – oil tankers or warships.

All of these political and military manuevers are to intimidate the UNSC into delaying economic/trade/travel sanctions after the August 31 deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment?

But, the United Security Council will NEVER vote for meaningful sanctions anyway.

Tehran has expressed worry about Israeli threats to destroy its nuclear facilities, which the West contends could be used to make a bomb but which Iran insists are for the peaceful purpose of generating electricity. The Islamic country also is concerned about the U.S. military presence in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan.

In an advance for Iran’s weapons industry, the Thaqeb is the country’s first missile fired from underwater that flies above the surface to strike its target, adding to the country’s repertoire of weapons that can hit ships in the Gulf.

Iran’s current arsenal includes several types of torpedoes â€” including the “Hoot,” Farsi for “whale,” which was tested for the first time in April and is capable of moving at some 223 mph, up to four times faster than a normal torpedo.

Kouchaki said the Thaqeb could be fired from any vessel and could escape enemy radar. He said it was built based on domestic know-how, although outside experts say much of the country’s missile technology originated from other countries like Russia and China.

He did not give the weapon’s range. It did not appear capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

During the April war games, Iran also tested a new land-to-sea missile, the Kowsar, with remote-control and searching systems that cannot be scrambled, as well as a high-speed missile boat that skims above the water and is undetectable by radar.

The progress in naval technology has raised concerns in the West that Iran has obtained a greater array of weapons that could hit oil shipments in the Gulf, through which about two-fifths of the world’s oil supplies pass.

When the “POINT OF NO RETURN” is reached the United States and Israel will ACT against Iran’s nuclear targets regardless of Iran’s display of force. Will world oil supplies be disrupted?

Probably

Is it a price to pay to assure Iran’s mullahs NOT obtain nuclear weapons?

YOU BET……

Stay tuned……