TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Tuesday it had tested what it called a "super-modern flying boat" capable of evading radar. State 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."
On Monday Iran said it tested a second new radar-avoiding missile during war games in the Persian Gulf that the military says are aimed at preparing the country's defenses against the United States.
The new surface-to-sea missile is equipped with remote-control and searching systems, the state-run television reported Tuesday.
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 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.
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But some experts say it appears some of the technology has come from other countries, possibly Russia, and some experts also have questioned just how adept the missiles are at evading radar.
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.
Iran said the torpedo tests were conducted on Sunday and Monday. The torpedo — called a "Hoot," or "whale" — is able to move at up to 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.
Here you go Heigou That Sounds like The Best News in Years to me!
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.
Here you go Heigou That Sounds like The Best News in Years to me!
Good for them. But such delusions are common in some Third World countries. I just hope they don't take their propaganda too seriously.
Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas. - Blaise Pascal
Good for them. But such delusions are common in some Third World countries. I just hope they don't take their propaganda too seriously.
If your Saying Iran is a third world country, I wonder how dumb can you possibly be. No offence Iran is nowhere near a third world country. Have you ever been to tehran? Please tell me you have been to tehran to even implicate a third world country in that sentence.
If your Saying Iran is a third world country, I wonder how dumb can you possibly be. No offence Iran is nowhere near a third world country. Have you ever been to tehran? Please tell me you have been to tehran to even implicate a third world country in that sentence.
I am sorry if it upsets you but Iran is a Third World country.
Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas. - Blaise Pascal
Iran= GDP per capita - $8100
Unemployment rate - 11.2 %
Pop. living below poverty - 40%
U.S.= GDP per capita - $41,800
Unemployment rate - 5.1%
Pop. living below poverty - 12%
And the Iranian figure is in PPP isn't it? More of a killer is the exports and imports.
Exports: petroleum 80%, chemical and petrochemical products, fruits and nuts, carpets, caviar
Imports: industrial raw materials and intermediate goods, capital goods, foodstuffs and other consumer goods, technical services, military supplies
In short Iran exports oil and oil-by-products. And some fruits, nuts, carpets and caviar. A Third World country with oil. It imports the modern world.
Compare with South Korea, what could reasonably be called a NIC before China got upset and insisted they call a NIE (a Newly Industrialised Economy) but still not quite a First World country.
Exports: electronics - semiconductors, lcd panel, mobile phone, computers related, television, and others], motor vehicle, steel, ships, petrochemicals,
Imports: machinery, electronics and electronic equipment, oil, steel, transport equipment, organic chemicals, plastics
Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas. - Blaise Pascal
Correct. All figures are from "The C.I.A. World Factbook."
Yeah? Well they might still be right.
But I don't want this to sound like a round of Iran bashing. I have friends who have gone to Iran to chat with various Mullahs and they are seriously clued up people. Iran is probably the most advanced country in the Middle East with the exception of Israel and perhaps Turkey.
My point is the enormous skills base you need to run a modern economy. You need doctors and engineers and scientists. And they need to be free to work. And they need to be able to find venture capital to start up businesses. Which takes honest government and laws that work effectively. It is an enormous project to modernise a country. Some Third World people have this "Ali Baba" mentality that all they need is to strike oil and suddenly they will be like Sweden. That is not how it works. When the oil runs out Iran will be left with some nice buildings. And some fruits, nuts, carpets and caviar. Unless they fix their economic base now.
Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas. - Blaise Pascal
I just saw (5:07 p.m. EST) the video of Irans "stealth boat". They can't be serious !!! It's an unstable piece of junk that is going to kill many more Iranians than it will Americans. After reading claims of its abilities and then seeing the video, I have to conclude that the Iranians are "full of soup", as my mother would say.
Yes and some people would expect Johnny T from a camp in United states to go to Iraq or afghanistan to fight Abdullah whos been through the soviet invasion and other wars and you except Johnny T to show him what war is Right? Everyone on this board should know if America did not have Aircraft , they would of lost the war on terror within the first year.
Yes and some people would expect Johnny T from a camp in United states to go to Iraq or afghanistan to fight Abdullah whos been through the soviet invasion and other wars and you except Johnny T to show him what war is Right? Everyone on this board should know if America did not have Aircraft , they would of lost the war on terror within the first year.
Well Johnny T seems to be doing fairly well so far. But you miss the point as the Soviets, after all, had aircraft. Yet they lost. What is the difference? I would suggest the Americans have the, at least, passive support of the Afghan population and that is why they are able to hold onto Afghanistan despite a trivial number of soldiers there.
Secondly, of course, there is a damn good reason the Americans have aircraft and the Afghans and Iraqis do not. Until the Muslim solve that problem all the suicide bombing in the world is mere annoyance.
Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas. - Blaise Pascal
The torpedo — called a "Hoot," or "whale" — is able to move at up to 223 mph,.....
I am not sure what world they tested it in but I don't think torpedos can travel at 223mph in the open water.
This is clearly a copy of a Soviet-design if not a Soviet-design. They fire a small rocket in the nose of the torpedo to create a pocket of steam ahead and around the torpedo. Then they fire a larger rocket at the back to push it forward at speed. Technically I don't think you would call it a torpedo so much as an underwater rocket. So it does not move through water really.
Inaccurate as anything apparently.
Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas. - Blaise Pascal
This is clearly a copy of a Soviet-design if not a Soviet-design. They fire a small rocket in the nose of the torpedo to create a pocket of steam ahead and around the torpedo. Then they fire a larger rocket at the back to push it forward at speed. Technically I don't think you would call it a torpedo so much as an underwater rocket. So it does not move through water really.
That is pretty damn clever engineering. Thanks for that info, HG.
You can see why it has such short range. It is also extremely LOUD. And impossible to steer. And basically unstable because after all it is suspended in a pocket of steam. That the Iranians managed to build a copy, if that is what they did, is pretty impressive. Now see if they can make it work.
Myself I am reminded of nothing so much as 1967 when Egypt too had secret wonder weapons. That did not end well.
Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas. - Blaise Pascal
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