Posted on 07/10/2008 7:51:26 PM PDT by Uncle Ralph
War-game tests by Iran of long- and medium-range missiles sent shock waves across the globe today, with tensions centering on a potential attack on Israel and, ultimately, the country's nuclear ambitions. Among the nine ballistic missiles fired was an upgraded Shahab-3 with GPS guidance, 450 pounds of carrying capacity and an estimated 1250-mile range—already a potent threat to Israeli cities and bases, even before nuclear warheads enter the equation. What's more, Gen. Hossein Salami, the air force commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, offered a blunt warning after the exercise, saying it demonstrated the country's "resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language," according to various reports.
Israel, meanwhile, may be preparing to use more than just harsh language, as officials there publicly ponder launching an airstrike against Iranian facilities being used to enrich uranium and produce heavy-water plutonium. And Iran has been taking measures to protect these far-flung targets, having learned from Iraq's enrichment program at Osirak, which was obliterated by an Israeli airstrike in 1980, that concentrating facilities in one area is strategically unwise...
An attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would be far more extensive than the 1980 raid. Some of the would-be targets for the Israeli Air Force (IAF) are hardened with concrete coverings and underground rooms. Dozens of planes would have to dodge radar and antiaircraft missile batteries to deliver multiple payloads of penetrating warheads ... So what might such an airstrike actually look like?
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
Iran is doomed.
And we know this because they told so? I suppose the crudely photo-shopped pictures were sufficient proof.
I thought the Shahab-3 had a 1000# warhead, that 450# quoted is quite a downsizing. Would that be our GPS positioning data their guidance system uses? Maybe we could "re-calibrate" the targeting data after launch. That could lead to some interesting mischief!
Regards,
GtG
Anyone know where these test shots are landing?
Having Hashem on your side don't hurt either.
Downsizing the warhead increased the range, quite a bit. If you have an atomic or chemical warhead that weighs less then 450lb, then you can throw it farther. GPS means that accuracy doesn't suffer..much anyway.
GPS is not that easy to spoof or even jam, and you'd mess up your own systems too. They are probably using GLONASS, the Russian version of GPS, along with our GPS, and if you turned ours off entirely, they'd probably revert to GLONASS.
As to how we know they are using GPS.. well a little birdie probably told us. And I'm not speculating on which sort of birdie that might have been.
Probably Russian supplied GPS units.,...or Chinese.,...
fyi
Chinese manufactured, Japanese designed, or even US designed. They are by now a commerical commodity, or near to it. The GPS set is just a specialized receiver and computer. It's the satellite constellation that is either US (GPS) or Russian (GLONASS). Small differences in the details of the signals from the satellites, but not so much that a single unit can't work with either. But the Satellites just broadcast, you don't anyone's permission or key to use them. One exception is the high accurracy mode, which may be encrypted, but AFAIK, neither is. Too many civilian services use it. It's not really regional, so that you could turn it off or on for just a certain region. AFAIK, the high accurracy mode was turned to "unencrpted" back in 2000 and has never gone back.
Yes, and it isn’t necessary. The mad leaders didn’t get the pun.
The US will help in a massive way. I won’t speculate further.
If they really had the firepower to take out Israel and our military bases in Iraq, they would have done it without talking about it.
Understood.
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