Update 27 January 2015: I believe there is a near certainty that the above image and caption reflect what PM Bibi Netanyahu will say to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, and thus the American people, 36 days from now. The report below on the Shahab-5 IRBM sitting on a launch pad near Tehran can be seen as the interim step necessary for Iran to take the final step prior to placing a Shahab-6 on that same launch pad. As discussed below, the Shahab-5 provides Iran with the delivery system necessary to strike any target in Europe with a nuclear warhead. The Shahab-6 will provide Iran with the delivery system to strike the continental United States with a nuclear warhead.
I am of the opinion that it is this reality that PM Netanyahu will express to the American people that has the White House in such a clenched-jaws fury. So furious in fact that the White House has dispatched a crack team of five electioneers whose mission it is to ensure the political defeat of PM Netanyahu in the upcoming Israeli elections. Good luck with that Mr. President, especially if the LORD God has already determined He wants Bibi to remain right where he is, for it is the LORD God who is the Ultimate Authority on whose regime is changed and whose regime remains in power.
23 January 2015: This past Wednesday Israel's Channel 2 TV aired a report which showed for the first time anywhere in the West a previously unknown and unseen Iranian ballistic missile on a launch pad near Tehran. The above screen-shot image from the Channel 2 TV report was taken by Israel's EROS-B (Earth Remote Observation System - B) commercial satellite. Shortly after the Channel 2 program aired The Times of Israel published this report. I would suggest everyone read the linked report.
Technically speaking (I know you techno geeks out there love this kind of stuff just as much as I do), the EROS-B "bird" captures images of objects on the earth's surface by a technique known as single-pass stereo imaging which is illustrated below.
On a single overhead pass the satellite optics payload takes two high resolution (70cm) images of the earth's surface in a swath that is nominally a 7km by 480 km rectangle. Unless there is cloud cover over the target area the image taken during that single pass is extremely well lit because EROS-B is in a Sun-synchronous orbit about 323 miles in altitude. That's how the image at the top has such clarity and precise measurements of the size of the objects in the image can be known, such as the missile's length being 27 meters (88.5 feet).
I have little doubt that some intelligent folks in Israel got wind that this missile of inter-continental range had been rolled out. In other words, the collection of this specific image of an operational Iranian launch pad sporting a never before seen IRBM upon it was not by accident. I also have little doubt that this image has caused quite a stir in the intelligence community. Iran has commercial satellite launch capabilities, but this missile has a purpose far beyond that.
As just noted, this missile is 88.5 feet in length. That means it is a full 24 feet longer than the Musudan BM-25 provided to Iran by North Korea. The BM-25 is
based upon the Russian R-27 submarine-launched ballistic missile. This missile is known to the West as
the Iranian Shahab-4. So, what I'm thinking is that this new, much larger and more capable missile has to be the nomenclatured but never before seen Iranian Shahab-5. Make no mistake, the Shahab-5 is a strategic weapon system that has been designed to deliver a high-yield nuclear warhead.
The
Shahab-5 has long been assessed to be an under-development
Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) that is in a class which includes the
Red Chinese DF-4 (CSS-3) IRBM. In fact, this missile looks like a
Chinese DF-4 in many respects, albeit much more technologically advanced than the 1980's era DF-4. This class of IRBM has a range of well
over 2,900 miles and is designed to deliver a single 4,800 lb nuclear
warhead. A warhead of that size would have a theoretic yield of approximately 2
Megatons. So, with this Shahab-5 IRBM launched from this pad near Tehran the
Ayatollah could vaporize London, Madrid or any other selected major European
capital city shortly after launch.
Interestingly enough, I have archived Western military assessments published during the mid-1990s Clinton era stating that Iran would achieve this capability not later than 2015. And here it is! While I can't hardly wait to hear what PM Netanyahu will say to the US Congress on March 3, I hope he doesn't wait much longer to do what needs to be done.
Interestingly enough, I have archived Western military assessments published during the mid-1990s Clinton era stating that Iran would achieve this capability not later than 2015. And here it is! While I can't hardly wait to hear what PM Netanyahu will say to the US Congress on March 3, I hope he doesn't wait much longer to do what needs to be done.
