February 14-2014
The Defense Ministry announced Monday the successful testing of two new missiles, including a long-range missile with multiple warheads, a first for Iran.
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly made exaggerated claims for its weaponry so there was no way to immediately verify the truth of the new claims.
The second missile claimed to have been tested successfully is a small laser-guided surface-to-surface or air-to-surface missile designed to take out small targets. It was named Bina (Insightful).
The government did not give a name for the new long-range missile.” It also did not give a range for that missile. The longest range Iran claims for any of its missiles is 2,000 kilometers, or enough to reach Israel.
The missiles were test-fired at a ceremony marking the 35th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. The regime normally claims new weapons breakthroughs on that occasion each year.
Speaking at the ceremony, Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossain Dehqan said, “This missile [Bina] is capable of precisely hitting important targets, including bridges, tanks, military hardware and command centers of enemies.” Photos of the Bina were released, indicating it is about 8 to 10 feet long.
Dehqan said of the other, unnamed missile: “It is capable of evading the enemy’s anti-missile defense systems, destroying massive targets and striking multiple targets with multiple warheads.” No photo of the missile was released.
President Rohani said that apart from Iran only the major world powers have such Multiple Reentry Vehicle (MRV) weapons. Rohani congratulated the Supreme Leader, the nation and the military forces on a giant achievement.
A Multiple Reentry Vehicle (MRV) is a ballistic missile warhead that deploys multiple bombs against a single target. This is not as advanced as a Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV), which deploys multiple warheads against multiple targets.
The utility of an MRV over a single warhead is that the damaged area is far greater than is possible with a single warhead even if the single warhead has more explosive power than the combined power of the individual warheads. This makes for an efficient area attack weapon. Also, the multiplicity of warheads makes interception by anti-ballistic missiles more difficult.
In addition to failing to give the name or range of Iran’s new MRV, Dehqan also failed to say how many bombs were in each warhead cluster.
