Iran’s New ICBM Surprises Experts- DefenseNews

In a feature article in this week’s DefenseNews, Barbara Opall-Rome, Israel Bureau Chief at the leading defense news weekly, discusses Iran’s Feb. 3 unveiling of Simorgh. She writes that US and Israeli experts expected improvements to existing boosters rather than a super-sized design that might evolve into an ICBM.

The following are excerpts from the article, including references to this blogger’s assessment of Simorgh’s capabilities and its launch.

Simorgh’s total thrust of 143 tons comes from the four 32-ton thrust engines that make up the first stage and a 15-ton thrust control engine as a second stage. Although Iran has acknowledged a lift capacity of just 100 kilograms, Nader Uskowi, a Washington-based consultant and blogger on Iran, said optimization of its current design should allow Iran to put a 700-kilogram payroll into low Earth orbit.

Simorgh came as a surprise to Israeli and U.S. experts.

“Most analysts expected development of a three-stage Ashura as the next logical step in Iran’s missile development program,” Uskowi said.

Initial Israeli assessments have identified four separate Shehab 3B rocket motors as the Simorgh’s clustered first stage motor. The four verniers used for steering could have come from Russian BM25.

The article appeared on February 15, 2010 edition of DefenseNews.