iran tests 'world's fastest' sonar-evading torpedo

Last Update: Monday, April 3, 2006. 6:48am (AEST)
Iran tests 'world's fastest' sonar-evading torpedo
Iran has test-fired a sonar-evading underwater missile that can outpace any enemy warship, a senior naval commander told state television on Sunday during a week of war games in the Gulf.

Western nations have been watching developments in Iran's missile capabilities with concern amid a stand-off over the Iranian nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at building atomic bombs.

Iran says the program is only civilian.

State television in Iran earlier described the missile as the world's fastest.

"This missile evades sonar technology under the water and, even if the enemy sonar system could detect its movement under the water, no warship could escape from it because of its high velocity," Revolutionary Guards Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said.

"The Islamic Republic is now among the only two countries who hold this kind of missile. Under the water the maximum speed that a missile could (usually) move is 25 metres per second, but now we possess a missile which goes as fast as 100 metres per second," he told state television.

The commander uses the word "missile" in Farsi, rather than "torpedo".

"The boats that can launch this missile have a technology that makes them stealthy and nobody could recognise them or act against them," he added.

Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, says the missile test should not worry the world.

He says that, to his knowledge, the weapon could not carry a nuclear warhead.

"The world should not worry because any country has its own self-defence conventional military activities," he told CNN.

Earlier in the war games, Iran had said it tested a radar-evading missile and this new announcement is likely to add to Western worries.

Analysts say the United States could take military action against Iran if it fails to resolve the nuclear dispute through diplomatic means.

Iranian commanders say their armed forces are ready to respond to any attack.

Iran has a commanding position over the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf, a shipping route through which passes some two-fifths of all the oil traded in the world.

The test was part of a week of Iranian naval manoeuvres that started on Friday and are taking place in the Gulf and Sea of Oman.

-Reuters

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1606737.htm