Iran Mass-Producing Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles

[Aspahbod]

TEHRAN (FNA)- Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari underlined IRGC's abundant military achievements in the post-revolution era, and said that the IRGC has started mass-production of a recently-developed smart anti-ship ballistic missile.

"The IRGC's smart ballistic missiles are now in mass-production and this type of missiles can hit and destroy targets with high-precision," Jafari told reporters in a news conference here in Tehran on Monday.

"These new missiles enjoys supersonic speed and cannot be tracked or intercepted by enemy," the commander said, adding that missiles can hit targets 300km away with high-precision.

He added that the IRGC will provide the media with the footages of the new missile, named "The Persian Gulf", in coming days.

FNA will release several photographs of this missile in hours.

Elsewhere, Jafari also announced that the IRGC has just finished designing and developing long-range passive radars and will soon start production, adding that this new radar system covers within a 1,100km-radius.

"These radars would remarkably increase the IRGC's capability in identifying sea-based targets," he noted.

Iran has been pushing an arms development program in recent years in a bid to reach self-sufficiency. Tehran launched its arms development program during the 1980-88 Iraqi imposed war on Iran to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own jet fighters and armored vehicles as well as radar-avoiding missiles and other high-tech weapons.

Yet, Iranian officials have always stressed that the country's military and arms programs serve defensive purposes and should not be perceived as a threat to any other country.

Source: Fars News Agency :: Commander: IRGC Mass-Producing Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles

 

[Aspahbod]

Rest of Images:

Video Link:
http://www.persiangig.com/pages/download/?dl=http://azkojatakoja.persiangig.com/video/FarsNewsAgency.zip

 

[Sinnerman108]

The missile says

Ya Ali ... !

 

[Tigershark]

Congrats to Iran! The picture showing the shockwave is awesome

 

[BelligerentPacifist]

On face value of the Iranian claim of its capability, this is a VERY SIGNIFICANT development, for the following reasons:

- China has been the only nation that has claimed such capability before Iran, and that quite recently. Iran went further and provided videographic proof.

- The new-and-improved Fateh-110 they used has some sort of terminal guidance, which would soon manifest itself across the range of BMs they produce - the Shahab-3 and the Sejjil could have just gotten the teeth they needed for a conventional-warhead strike to be successful.

- Iran is showing very rapid progress in motor as well as guidance technologies, and ICBMs might not remain a immaterializable dream for long.

- On the diplomatic front, and all this show was meant for this, they are showing their resolve at defending (or terrorizing, depending which side you're on) the Persian Gulf using innovative means. However, this is not my area and I'll pass the baton to other members.


HOWEVER, the test could (and I think, PROBABLY IS) have been orchestrated to show a capability htat in fact is in-existent. Arguments:

- The barge seemed stationary. Its coordinates could simply have been alimented into the guidance. Still this means, tremendously low CEP.

- Signs of support infrastructure for such a capability was not evident from the video. Of course, it could simply have been not shown. But the radar that detects ships out to 1000km, does it also guide the missile to it? Can it? China uses satellites as well as other over-the-horizon sensors for theirs, can Iran do without?

- The rocket's payload doesn't separate from the body, so this kind of accuracy might not be achievable outside this kind of controlled environment. Also, 300km seems an exaggeration for the rocket's range, they used to say it was 250km, and it should decrease with all the add-on guidance. Again, the payload has to be quite small if it fits in that nosecone, would it suffice for a carrier?


Some remarks about the missile:
- The nose is blunter. Why? Do they have a camera/oter sensors right at the tip? Reminds me of the Aerofon warhead on the Scud.

- Would they pick the ship up using IR or other imaging techniques after having been initially guided by ground control?

- The missile has air vanes (and lots of them!), so we know it can be guided to a certain extent, externally. Have they acquired/created on-board guidance technology that acts on input (GPS, image of the ocean underneath etc) for knowing its current position relative to the target? It took China long to get there, it seems far too good to be true that Iran is there just ten years later.

- How many such missiles could that radar guide at once? Will it track the hip and update the missile's guidance in real time?

- The missile might have to fly less lofted if they want it to be detected later (lesser chance of Aegis shooting it down) and that could bring the range down a hundred kilometers. Of course that is operational detail.

I was really hoping Pakistan develops such a system as a backup to PN's orbat, but dang the Iranians beat us to it!

 

[applesauce]

China has been the only nation that has claimed such capability before Iran,

china has never claimed to have or working on any kind of a anti-ship ballistic missile

 

[tanlixiang28776]

china has never claimed to have or working on any kind of a anti-ship ballistic missile

If actually confirmed then the ballistic missiles China use are not in the same range 300 Km vs 3000 Km. But with limited resources Iran has achieved something even the U.S and Russia have not so its still very impressive

 

[Khalid Al-Qurashi]

wonderful news . Best of luck to the iranian people.

but why Ya Ali ? why not ya Allah or one of his 100 names ?

yes we adore Ali رضي الله عنه و كرم وجهه and he`s one of the best men ever lived but he is a human and he`s dead . Allah never dies .

once again thanks for your thread
Khalid al-husaini

 

[GUNS-N- ROSES]

is anyone discussing iran's impressive achievement or shall we continue to discuss divisions in islam. guys get a life.

 

[BelligerentPacifist]

china has never claimed to have or working on any kind of a anti-ship ballistic missile

China has officially not claimed that J-20 is the product of a stealth fighter program. They don't have to spell out everything neither is the rest of the world Thickville. It has been reported, by press leakages or alluding official statements what the DF-21D is meant for.

 

[Cheetah786]

God I need moderation rights for this thread! I began a discussion about an emergent capability and its strategic implications and was hoping for it to continue.

Certain gentlemen (particularly those with names beginning with A!) should never be unbanned.

Well it turns out after all that edumaction and making it to the 3rd grade which i thought was a big achievement for me it looks like it was a waist of time as i cant make sense of of what is you saying so please for folks like us could you make it clear.

 

[Cheetah786]

Which part of ''His name put a fear in enemies of islam'' was flaming.

 

[Abii]

video

 

[Abii]

Developments in the Use of TBMs as Anti-Ship Weapons
Developments in the Use of TBMs as Anti-Ship Weapons

Earlier I explored the viability of Iran using a wide range of artillery rockets (MLRS), tactical ballistic missiles (TBM) and ballistic missiles proper (BM) as potential anti-ship weapons to supplement their usual cruise-missile type weapons and I concluded that while the use of cluster munitions might be useful against aircraft-carriers, the available generations of missiles didn't present a significant threat against most warships. (1) One feature I did feel was important in terms of long-term significance however was the similarity found between Chinese and Iranian anti-ship technology development.

Khalij Fars anti-ship missile (Fars News)
Fast-forward to February 2011 and Ali Jafari, Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), announced that the force was now producing "smart ballistic missiles" (2) The announcement was accompanied by video and photographic evidence of the missile, pointedly named the"Khalij Fars" (Persian Gulf), being launched, and of it striking its target.

The missile itself is clearly based on the Fateh-110. The timing as well as the actual photographic evidence of the impact (a rarity among Iran's various missile announcements) suggests it's closely linked to the 3rd generation of the missile shown in August 2010.While it is a much smaller missile, similarities can be drawn to specific variants of the Chinese DF-21 ballistic missile which is has been touted as a "carrier-killer".

However, one curiosity is the reported specifications. It is reported as having a 300 km range which matches the previously announced range for the 3rd-generation Fatah-110. Also reported is a 650 kg warhead which represents a 31% increase in size versus the 1st generation of the Fatah-110 (450 kg). Future generations are set to have a longer range. (3) Unfortunately the warhead size/weight of the 3rd-generation model is unknown. One explanation is simple disinformation, another is a change in fuel composition and a subsequent increase in efficiency.

Known Specifications:
Length: 8.76 m
Diameter: 616 mm
Max Range: 300 km
Warhead: 650 kg

It was previously postulated that the Fateh-110 had a separating warhead which would have made the missile more accurate and harder to intercept. However, both the video and still images show the full missile impacting the target ship.

Selected screen captures showing the missile striking the floating target (Fars News)

The most significant unknown surrounds the method of terminal guidance. In fact, the only physical difference between the Fateh-110 and the Khalij Fars can be found in the nose of the missile, the latter exchanging the former's sharp point for a rounded nose. The lone high-quality image of it available from Fars News does not provide any definitive answers. While there does not appear to be an electro-optical seeker, contour blending and specific photography angles could easily obscure it. If an optical device, it would either use basic contrast measuring, such as on early TV-guided air-to-ground missiles, or the more advanced scene-matching correlators which aligns the displayed result with previously stored imaging. The Russian SS-26 Iskander-E is an example of a ballistic missile which uses an image correlator to give a remarkable CEP of 5-7 m. (4). The other alternative is some kind of radar seeker which essentially function the same as the optical correlator, but with radar instead of visual waves. The Chinese DF-11 is an example of a ballistic missile that uses an radar for terminal guidance to give it a CEP of 500-600 m (the DF-11A uses an image correlator which improves the CEP to 200 m) (5) It is worth mentioning that the target during the test was static while real world targets are much more likely to be maneuvering. This doesn't rule out the possibility of success as the terminal phase seeker could still track the target, whether it's moving or not, it just makes it harder.

The number one concern is, of course, accuracy, can it hit a warship? Video, as well as circumstantial evidence suggest the the 750 m CEP of the original Fateh-110 has been substantially improved upon as videos of the missile striking a naval target have been published. There are however several unknowns, including at what range the missile was fired at, the number of shots it took to get one that actually hit the target, and the degree to which the testing was pre-planned or actually represented battlefield conditions. One solution might be to look to comparable missiles across the globe.

While the use of submunitions has not been suggested, with the missile during the test carrying a unitary warhead, given the focus of the previous piece on this blog, it bears examining the possibility that they are carried by the Khalij Fars.

Following the same steps as before, we can deduce that:

Submunition Warhead
Total Weight: 650 kg
Payload: 1,083 .45 kg bomblets
Threatened Area: 126, 426 sqm
Lethal Radius: 200 m

It bears repeating that this is only a thought experiment as to what would be possible if it carried submunitions.

The unveiling of the Khalij Fars is a significant development for naval-warfare analysts studying Iran because it concretely indicates that Iran is pursuing an anti-ship ballistic missile at least superficially similar to the DF-21. While before, Safavi's obtuse comment about the Shahab-3 as well as the use of the Fajr-3/5 rockets alongside AShMs indicated this might be the case, this development confirms it. While the Iranian missile isn't in the class of the DF-21, that's only because it's an early model (longer range models are said to be in development) and more adequately fits the needs of Iran, namely a smaller, cheaper, quick-reaction missile that threatens close to the entirety of the Persian Gulf.

The Arkenstone

 

[applesauce]

China has officially not claimed that J-20 is the product of a stealth fighter program. They don't have to spell out everything neither is the rest of the world Thickville. It has been reported, by press leakages or alluding official statements what the DF-21D is meant for.

first of all the "leaks" are mostly western news and i never said unofficially they arnt doing something like it., china rarely reports or even make official comments on its weapons program, irans likes to tell the world this and that, china rather make stuff quietly which frankly i like