US Worried of Iran’s Missile Capability

According to a June 29 report by the Pentagon, "Iran has boosted the lethality and effectiveness of existing systems by improving accuracy and developing new payloads that extend the destructive power over a wider area than a solid warhead."
Bloomberg stated that "the report, signed by US War Secretary Leon Panetta, was presented to the four US congressional military committees last week to comply with a 2010 directive to provide an annual classified and unclassified assessment of Iran's military power."

It noted that improvements in Iran's missile capability are occurring in parallel with regular ballistic-missile training that "continues throughout the country" and the addition of "new ships and submarines."
"Iran is developing and claims to have deployed short-range ballistic missiles with seekers that enable the missile to identify and maneuver toward ships during flight," the report added.
"This technology also may be capable of striking land- based targets."

"Iran's military improvements are occurring in parallel with regular ballistic-missile training that continues throughout the country" and the addition of "new ships and submarines," the report concluded.
The report repeats the US concerns that Iran with "sufficient foreign assistance may be technically capable of flight-testing an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015."

"Iran also continues to develop ballistic missiles which can reach regional adversaries, "Israel" and Eastern Europe, including an extended-range variant of the Shahab-3 and a 2,000-km.-medium-range ballistic missile," said the Pentagon report.


Source: Bloomberg, Edited by moqawama.org