Iran Duplicates Chinese Wonder Weapon

July 11, 2011: STRATEGY PAGE

Iran announced that it had developed an anti-ship missile, with a range of 300 kilometers. The new missile, called the Khalij Fars, is said to be developed from the earlier Fateh 110. But this is where this announcement gets strange.

The Fateh 110 is a copy of the Chinese DF-11A ballistic missile, which had a range of 400 kilometers. The Fateh 110 is a 8.86 meter (27.5 foot), 3.5 ton rocket with a half ton warhead. Range is about 250 kilometers. The Fateh 110 is a solid fuel missile developed to replace the liquid fueled SCUD ballistic missiles Iran had been using since the 1980s. SCUD was developed from the German World War II era V-2.

What all this implies is that Iran is claiming to have developed a ballistic missile that can hit moving ships at sea. China is also claimed to have developed this technology (the DF-21D). But neither country has demonstrated their anti-missile ballistic missiles actually working. Moreover, Iran regularly announces wondrous new weapons, developed entirely in Iran. Very few of these weapons are ever seen in service.