Iran test-fires new torpedo

2006-04-03 09:56

Tehran - Iran conducted its second major test of a new missile within days, firing a high-speed torpedo that it said no submarine or warship can escape and boasting of its strength at a time of increased tensions with the United States over its nuclear programme.

The tests on Sunday came during war games that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been holding in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea since Friday.

On the manoeuvers' first day, Iran said it successfully tested the Fajr-3 missile, which can avoid radars and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads.

The new torpedo, called the "Hoot," or "whale, " could raise concerns over Iran's power in the Gulf, a vital corridor for the world's oil suppies where the US Navy's 5th Fleet is based. During Iran's war with Iraq in the 1980s, Iranian ships attacked oil tankers in the Gulf and Iran and the US military engaged in limited clashes.

Iran's state television stopped its normal programmes to break news of the torpedo test, showing it being launched from a ship into the Gulf waters, then hitting its target, a derelict ship.

Threat

General Ali Fadavi, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards' Navy, said the ships that fire the Iranian-made Hoot had radar-evading technology and that the torpedo - moving at 360km/h - was too fast to elude.

"It has a very powerful warhead designed to hit big submarines. Even if enemy warship sensors identify the missile, no warship can escape from this missile because of its high speed," Fadavi told state television.

The Hoot's speed would make it about three or four times faster than a normal torpedo and as fast as the world's fastest known underwater missile, the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, developed in 1995. It was not immediately known if the Hoot was based on the Shkval.

The new weapon gives Iran "superiority" against any warship in the region, he said, in a veiled reference to US vessels in the Gulf. It was not immediately clear whether the torpedo can carry a nuclear warhead.

Commander Jeff Breslau, spokesperson for the US 5th Fleet based on the tiny Arab island nation of Bahrain in the Gulf, said no special measures were taken in reaction to the Iranian war games, even after the latest missile test.

He would not comment on whether the new torpedo represents a threat to American forces in the region.

Iran is now trying to show its strength amid worries of US military action over its nuclear programme, which Washington says aims to produce nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusation, saying it intends only to generate electricity.

The United Nations 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 US officials have not ruled out military action as an eventual option, insisting they will not allow Iran to gain a nuclear arsenal.

- AP