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Short Range/Solid Propellant Missile Programs

Name Range (km) Type Diameter (m) Length (m) Weight (kg) Warhead (kg) Comments
Mushak-90 90 -- 0.355 5.9 950 150
Mushak-120 130 -- -- -- -- -- Iran-130, Nazeat-10
Mushak-160 160 -- -- -- -- --
Mushak-200 150 -- -- -- -- -- Zelzal
Saequeh-1
(Lightning)
-- Anti-tank -- -- -- --
Thunder -- Heavy anti-tank -- -- -- -- Laser guided
Towsan -- Medium anti-armor -- -- -- -- Super Dragon
Misaq -- Anti-aircraft -- -- -- --
Zelzal-2 100-125 Tactical -- -- -- -- Variant of the Russian
Luna-M/FROG-7
Shahin-2 20 Tactical 0.355 3.87 580 180
Oghab 45 Tactical -- -- -- --
Fajr-3
Fajr-5
45 Tactical -- -- -- --
Nazeat-4
Nazeat-6
Nazeat-10
90-125 Tactical -- -- -- --
Fatch-110
Victorious-110
NP-110
168.95 Tactical 0.45 -- -- --
Tondar-68 130-150-180 -- -- -- -- 500 Derived from the
SA-2 and M-7 (CSS-8)
Iran-700 700 -- -- -- 500 --
Shahab-X 1300-1500 MRBM -- -- -- 700-1000 Currently in R&D

Overview

Iran's solid propellant tactical ballistic and guided missile program has been around for many years because of the Iran Iraq war, but has more recently benefited from some Russian and a great deal of Chinese assistance. This technology transfer has allowed Iran to develop a new indigenous solid propellant rocket industry located 175 km east of Tehran within the Sanam, based Industrial Group, department 140 and it predecessor organizations. This is one of the major industrial groups in charge of the Solid propellant ballistic missile programs. The Sanam Industrial Group further developed the existing industrial infrastructure and had its personnel trained to modern state of the art technological standards for that industry to the extent possible. In total it has allowed Iran to develop as many as 30-40 or more different solid propellant rocket motors into full or as parts of missiles systems although some are still under development. This does take into account the space launch vehicle program/strategic ballistic missile program solid motors used as second or third stages' on those launchers as well as the artillery, anti-armor, tactical, SAM, cruise missile, AAM, ASM, and other related solid motors. Presumably some of these space program related solid motors were supplied by China and or reworked by Iran's developing missile industry for their own use. Those Chinese motors can be readily identified from public literature on then from China. This also assumes that China may have supplied North Korea the solid motor technology that was used as Taep'o-dong-1's third stage in its first attempted satellite launch.

The Washington Times, documented China's contribution to the Iranian solid propellant rocket program on June 17, 1997 with the following basic information. The NP-110 short-range, 450 mm, diameter solid propellant missile has a stated range of 105 miles or 168.95 kilometers. The report says China supplied X-ray equipment, which is used to check the solid propellant casting to make sure it is cured correctly, as well as other required solid propellant production capability. (1)

Contribution by Russia, through MTCR violations, of technology transfer to Iran's solid propellant rocket program infrastructure through an educational process were documented by The Washington Times in its February 23, 1998 issue. The article certainly gave suggested indications of duplicity on the part of the Russian, Federal Security Service (FSB) cooperation with Baltic State Technical University in St. Petersburg. The University previously called Military Mechanical Institute Imeni Ustinov and its director Yuri P. Savelyev were implicated for providing technical pyrotechnics education to Iran's Solid propellant missile industry. (2)

The U.S Government would subsequently issue sanctions through the United Stated, Department of State against the Baltic State Technical University and its director Yuri P. Savelyev for violations of the MTCR. Many of the other existing sanctions were at that time lifted from Russian entities previously sanctioned. They were working on the NP-110 missile also known as the Fatch (Victorious-110) first launched successfully on May 31, 2001 with a range of 105 miles or 168.95 kilometers. Technically this is probably legal under the MTCR range limits.

Some indications of China's support of the Iranian, solid propellant rocket program was published in the June 16, 1998 issue of The Washington Times. Iran had carried out a "purchase of telemetry equipment" from China for missile flight test monitoring. In addition "China Great Wall Industries" provided an entire "Telemetry infrastructure" for the Shahab-3 MRBM and Shahab-4 IRBM based on No-dong. Moreover it is clear that China helped in the NP-110 short-range tactical solid propellant missile with a 105 mile (168.95 km) range. (3)

Successful completion of the development of the NP-110 was confirmed in The Washington Times, May 31, 2001 article "Successfully tested the homebuilt Fateh-110 (Victorious -110)". This is a part of the 105 mile range NP-110 Surface to surface missile program started in 1997 that is based on solid propellant technology acquired from China and Russia. (4)

It was reported in the Middle East Newsline of October 17, 2001 that Iran would appear to be attempting to develop a solid propellant equivalent capability Shahab-3 class MRBM with similar performance requirements based on assistance from the Chinese like was done in Pakistan. It is suggest that the Chinese will supply a different guidance system for this project. (5) Some sources claim that the Russians are helping a solid-fuel design team at the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group in Teheran develop a 2,800-mile (4,505.2 kilometers) missile, capable of reaching London and Paris, and a 6,300-mile [10,000 km] range missile that could strike cities in the eastern United States. These reports are poorly documented and would appear to be highly speculative.

References

  1. Gertz, Bill, "China joins forces with Iran on short-range missile", The Washington Times, 17, June 1997, p.A3.
  2. Gertz, Bill, "Russia conspiring with Iran on missiles", The Washington Times, 23, Feb. 1998, pp. A1 &A18.
  3. Gertz, Bill, "China assists Iran, Libya on Missiles", The Washington Times, June 16, 1998, pp. A1 & A14.
  4. "Iran says it tested first solid missile", associated Press, 31, May 2001, "Iran test fires new missile: TV, Tehran", AFP 31, May 2001.
  5. Rodan, Steve, "Iran Begins Serial Production of Shahab-3", Middle East Newsline, Oct. 17, 2001.


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