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Iran acquires upgraded non-conventional missiles from North Korea
Iran has acquired surface-to-air missiles modified with chemical weapons. Western intelligence sources said Iran has acquired modified SA-2 air defense systems from North Korea. They said Pyongyang has converted the SA-2 from a surface-to-air to a surface-to-surface missile. "The North Koreans took an old clunky SAM system and turned it into a tactical non-conventional missile with excellent accuracy," an intelligence source said.The sources said Iran was believed to have acquired the converted SA-2 in 2008. The system has been deployed along the Iranian coast near Qatar in what has become escalated regional tension. The heritage SA-2, a 1950s-era Soviet SAM, has an interception range of 35 kilometers. But the sources said the new surface-to-surface variant could strike at distances of more than 200 kilometers, allowing Iran to conduct precision strikes on nearby Gulf Cooperation Council states. Depends on how you define "precision". North Korea has installed a CW warhead on the modified SA-2 missile. The sources did not provide any data on the warhead, but said it could destroy strategic facilities, including desalination plants and liquefied natural gas complexes. Chemical weapons don't destroy facilities, they kill the people running them and, depending on the chemical used, keep you from getting them running again for a extended period of time. Problem is, you need to dump a lot of chemicals on a target to do the job right. Back in the day, NATO expected the USSR to use mass volleys of rockets and artillery to deliver tons of nerve agent. The SA-2 Guideline had a conventional warhead with 130kg of HE. That's a small amount of chemicals in the military sense, but enough for a terror strike. "This has given Iran a strategic capability against Qatar," the source said. Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-01-25 |
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