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Iran announces plans to improve intermediate-range missile

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Wednesday, May 8, 2002

NICOSIA Ñ Iran intends to improve the capabilities of its Shihab-3 missile.

Iranian officials said Teheran has already demonstrated the range of the missile and now intends to improve its subsystems. They said the improvements are being developed amid the production of the Shihab-3.

Iran is said to have completed the production of 20 Shihab-3 missiles. The missiles are powered by North Korean engines and were integrated with help from Russia.

Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said the Shihab-3 effort would seek to increase what he termed the cruise and lethality capabilities of the intermediate-range missile. Shamkhani, speaking to reporters at a defense exhibition, said Iran would use advanced data-relay systems to bolster the guidance capabilities of the Shihab-3.

"Shamkhani stressed that Iran is planning to use the systems as an industrial strategy to upgrade its current military hardware potentials, and to control future needs," the official Islamic Republic News Agency said.

The Shihab-3, which underwent three flight tests, has a range of 1,300 kilometers and is said to be a derivative of North Korea's No-Dong missile.

A flight test scheduled for January was aborted when the missile blew up during the fueling stage.

Western intelligence sources said Iran has developed two models of the Shihab-3. One version contains Iranian subsystems and the other is the basic No-Dong. The model with the Iranian subsystems failed in a flight test more than two years ago.

U.S. officials said Iran is a major North Korean client and Pyongyang is helping Teheran develop the intermediate-range Shihab-4 missile. A senior U.S. official said the missile will have a range of about 2,000 kilometers that would allow Iran to strike targets in southern and central Europe.

Shamkhani denied that Iran was developing either the Shihab-4 or the longer-range Shihab-5. The Shihab-5 is said to be planned for a range of about 6,000 kilometers.

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