Iran conducts battlefield test of Shihab-3 missile, spends $1.5 billion on
WMD warhead
Geostrategy-Direct, www.geostrategy-direct.com, December 28, 2004

Iran has successfully tested its enhanced intermediate-range missile under
battlefield conditions.

U.S. officials said Iran demonstrated its ability to fire a Shihab-3 missile
within hours of an order. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps tested the
Shihab-3 on Oct. 20 under the most realistic battle conditions yet,
officials said.

Iranian Defense Ministry sources also provided details of Teheran's efforts
to develop a weapons of mass destruction warhead for the enhanced Shihab-3
missile. The sources told the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat on Nov. 26 that
the Zelzal comprised a five-stage program to develop a biological, chemical
and nuclear warhead.

The sources were quoted as saying that the warhead was developed for the
Shihab-3, which traveled 1,990 kilometers during the October launch. The
project cost $1.5 billion, derived from oil revenues, they said.

A WMD warhead has also been developed for the new Makar rocket. The sources
told A-Sharq Al Awsat that the 355-mm rocket could carry a biological or
chemical warhead.

"The test was meant to show everybody of Iran's capability to fire the
missile at a moment's notice," an official said.

Officials said the October Shihab-3 launch was not meant to achieve the
maximum range of the missile, which flew about 1,300 kilometers, but is
capable of continuing for an additional several hundred kilometers.

"They didn't seek to obtain the maximum range," the official said. "When you
try to get to the maximum range, you have a certain telemetry that we didn't
detect."

The Oct. 20 launch was the first actual test firing of the enhanced Shihab-3
missile under battlefield conditions. Officials said the modified Shihab
contained a range of Iranian-developed subsystems, including a liquid-fuel
engine.

In August, the enhanced Shihab-3 was used in a command and control
demonstration that did not seek to fly the missile to any significant range.

Officials said the missile was aborted within seconds of launch.

U.S. officials confirmed the Iranian claim that Teheran could begin serial
production of the Shihab-3. But they said they doubted this would take place
over the next few months as development of the intermediate-range was
continuing.

A-Sharq Al Awsat quoted the Defense Ministry sources as saying that in late
2003 Iran achieved the capability to produce what they termed small atomic
weapons.

The sources said Iran's aim was to produce a nuclear warhead, a process that
they estimated would take no more than 18 months.