US Navy fears a bad case of Sunburn in Iran

The Persian Gulf is effectively a lake whose entrance is the Straits if Hormuz. WEll hidden and well protected shore batteries of the Russian Sunburn missiles 3M80/Kh-41 MOSKIT [SS-N-22 'Sunburn' is the NATO designation]overlook it from the Iranian shore.

The Moskit is a large supersonic anti-ship missile. Designed by the Raduga Design Bureau, development of the Moskit began in the 1970s. The Moskit entered Soviet military service in the 1980s aboard Sovremennyy-class guided missile destroyers and several classes of fast attack boats. An air-launched version of the Moskit was first displayed in 1992, and Raduga also reportedly began designs for a surface-to-air variant. Neither variant had entered production as of April 2002. The Moskit's control system is manufactured by NPO Altair. Missile assembly takes place at the Progress plant in Arsenyevo in Primorskiy Kray.

The Moskit is powered by a ramjet engine and has an estimated top speed of Mach 2.5. It has a launch weight of 3,950kg and carries a payload of 300kg. The Moskit has a range of 120km (250km air-launched), but tests of the Moskit using a high trajectory showed the possibility of increasing its range to 300km.

Moskit Missile Characteristics
Length (m) 9.385
Diameter (m) .76
Range (km) 120 ground-launched
Speed (Mach) 2.5
Launch Weight (kg) 3,950
Warhead (kg) 300

These specifications have been upgraded with time.For example the Indians have developed the Brahmos ship to ship missile with the Russians and demonstrated it destroying a ship in the Arabian Ocean last year.

According to one report, the Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani visited Moscow in October 2001 and requested a test firing of the Sunburn, which the Russians were happy to arrange. So impressed was Ali Shamkhani that he placed an initial order for six of the missiles.

Should the US / Israel decide on a pre-emptive strike, perhaps with the alleged nuclear bunker buster bombs that have been said to be supplied to Israel the Iranians will unleash the monstrous power of these weapons which can destroy an aircraft carrier.

Saddam showed in the war of the Scuds how to deceive the enemy about location , number and readiness of land based missiles... which explains the repeated incursions into Iranian territory by special forces and the concentrated usage of Israeli unmanned stealth boats in the Persian Gulf.

Whilst the Iranians are happy to tweak Uncle Sam's beard, they are well eqipped to defend those who would attack them... however those armed with a Masada complex ....

It has been said before in March 2003 prior to the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The course is charted, arrogant use of the military is all the US ruling class has to maintain its dominance. After Iraq, asymmetric warfare, "terrorism," will be directed at Americans, American institutions, American targets, and American allies. When the rest of the world recognizes how thinly spread the US military is, thinly spread physically, and economically, because it is not a sustainable institution in its current incarnation, rebellions will occur. Indeed they have already started. The response of the weakening US will be to lash out, often with unforeseeable consequences, just as the consequences of this impending invasion are unforeseeable, and unknown.

Sturm and Drang

Military might is a sign of strength, but the US military is not invincible worldwide. America's use of force as both first and last resort is a sign of profound systemic weakness. Its employment today will destabilize the world, and cause us to stumble into a Third World War: The War of Unintended Consequences.