IRAN: Iran has test-fired a sonar-evading underwater missile that can outpace any enemy warship, a senior naval commander told state television yesterday during a week of war games in the Gulf.
The West has been watching developments in Iran's missile capabilities with concern amid a standoff over the Iranian nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at building atomic bombs. Iran says the programme is only civilian. Analysts say the US could take military action against Iran if it fails to resolve the nuclear dispute through diplomatic means. Iranian commanders say their armed forces are ready to respond to any attack.
Iran earlier in the war games said it tested a radar-evading missile and yesterday's announcement is likely to add to Western worries. Iran has a commanding position over the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf, a shipping route through which passes two-fifths of all the oil traded in the world.
"This missile evades sonar technology under the water and even if the enemy sonar system could detect its movement under the water, no warship could escape from it because of its high velocity," Revolutionary Guards Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said.
"The Islamic Republic is now among the only two countries who hold this kind of missile. Under the water the maximum speed that a missile could [ usually] move is 25 metres per second, but now we possess a missile which goes as fast as 100 metres per second," he told state television.
The commander used the word "missile" in Farsi, rather than "torpedo". He added: "The boats that can launch this missile have a technology that makes them stealthy and nobody could recognise them or act against them."
Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, said the missile test should not worry the world. To his knowledge, the weapon could not carry a nuclear warhead. "The world should not worry because any country has its own self-defence conventional military activities," he said.