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China-Japan-Koreas | ||||
Norks, Iran joined on missile work: U.S. general | ||||
2009-06-12 | ||||
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran and North Korea are working together to develop ballistic missiles and have made significant progress, the head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said on Thursday. "It really is an international effort going on out there to develop ballistic missile capability between these countries," Army Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly told a forum on Capitol Hill.
"We've seen it for years and it continues," he said of such cooperation between North Korea and Iran, whose Shahab missiles are widely reported to be based on North Korean designs. Their ability to fire missiles with a stable ignition and launch a second stage represents "a significant step forward" for both of them, O'Reilly said. Asked which country was further ahead in missile development, he said it could be described as a "horse race" with no clear leader.
Iran's use of solid-fuel missiles demonstrated "a quantum leap in capabilities" over those shown by North Korea, Uzi Rubin, the former head of Israel's Missile Defense Organization, told Reuters in an interview. "Basically, this is big-power league," he said, adding that the jury was still out, as far he was concerned, on whether the two had integrated their ballistic missile programs. The U.S. Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center says Iran, with support from outside sources, within six years could produce a missile capable of hitting the United States. "Iran has ambitious ballistic missile and space launch development programs and, with sufficient foreign assistance, Iran could develop and test an ICBM capable of reaching the United States by 2015," it said in a new report. The report, made available by the Federation of American Scientists, said North Korea was continuing work on its Taepodong 2 "that could reach the United States with a nuclear payload" if developed as an intercontinental ballistic missile. The Obama administration has asked Congress for $7.8 billion for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency in fiscal 2010, down about $1.2 billion from 2009. Congress is considering adding more funds. | ||||
Posted by:Steve White |
#3 See related artic on PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > IRAN WILL BUILD THE [US-hitting] ICBM BY 2015. NOKOR's Taepongdong-II to serve as base design for Iran's possible future ICBM + prob be exported by NOKOR to other countries. |
Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-06-12 22:27 |
#2 WAFF > SOVIET NUKES IN IRAN? Arms dealer S. Haider = FAR WEST Company's invol in approxi 20 missing Soviet KH-55 missles + 4 200-Kiloton nuclear warheads from Ukrained since 2001. Also on WAFF > THE CONQUEST OF EURASIA: NATO'S WAR FOR THE WORLD'S HEARTLAND. AZERBAIJAN AND THE CASPIAN. Mackinder's "World Island" Concept > Eastern Europe to China. Methinks RADICAL ISLAM = IRAN at this time is the one "going for broke" vee the destabilization, "cantonization" = breakup, and conquest of the "WORLD'S HEARTLAND" IN CENTRAL-SOUTH-EAST ASIA [Parts of RUSS, CHIN, + INDIA = FUTURE NUCLEAR ISLAMIST SUPER-STATE]??? |
Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-06-12 20:06 |
#1 WND/TOPIX > REPORT [USAF via FAS]: IRANIAN MISSLE THREAT ON THE US BY 2015 [ Iran-Nork collusion]. |
Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-06-12 18:30 |