Iran claims he has tested 'top secret' missile

Iran today said it had successfully test-fired a “top secret” missile, the third within a week, state-run television reported.

The report called the missile an “ultra-horizon” weapon and said it could be fired from all military helicopters and jet fighters.

The tests come during war games being held by the elite Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea since Friday at a time of increased tensions with the US over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The television said the test was a “turning point” in Iran’s missile tests but did not give any further details.

Last Friday, Iran tested the Fajr-3, a missile that it said can avoid radar and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads. Iran also has tested what it calls two new torpedoes.

A second new radar-avoiding missile tested yesterday was a surface-to-sea missile equipped with remote-control and searching systems. Iranian military officials said the country has the capability to mass-produce the medium-range missile, named Kowsar after the name of a river in paradise.

Kowsar’s guidance system cannot be scrambled and it has been designed to sink ships, the officials said.

It was tested in the Straits of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Gulf that is a vital corridor for oil supplies. That seemed to be a clear warning to the United States that Iran believes it has the capability to disable oil tankers moving through the Gulf.

The Revolutionary Guards, the elite branch of Iran’s military, have been holding their manoeuvres – code-named the “Great Prophet” – since Friday, touting what they call domestically built technological advances in their armed forces.

But some military analysts in Moscow said it appears the high-speed torpedoes likely were Russian-built weapons that may have been acquired from China or the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.

Others have questioned just how radar-evading the missiles are. Iran’s radar are not as advanced as those of Israel, for example – meaning that perhaps the new weapons can avoid Iran’s radar but not more advanced types.

The US said on Monday – after the second torpedo test – that while Iran may have made “some strides” in its military, it likely is exaggerating its capabilities.

Yesterday, the Guards also tested what it called a “super-modern flying boat” capable of evading radar. The boat, looking like an aircraft, was shown taking off from the sea and flying low over the surface of the water. It said the craft can fly with a speed of 100 nautical miles per hour.

Iran said the torpedo tests were conducted on Sunday and Monday. The torpedo - called a “Hoot,” or “whale” – is able to move at 223mph, too fast for any enemy ship to elude.

Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to improve its combat readiness and test locally made equipment such as missiles, tanks and armoured personnel carriers.

Iran launched an arms development programme during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armoured personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane.