Iran Has It
The U.S. Navy, after nearly six years of
warnings from Pentagon testers, still lacks a plan for defending
aircraft carriers against a supersonic Russian-built missile, according
to current and former officials and Defense Department documents.
The missile, known in the West as the ``SN-27,'' may be purchased by
Iran.`` This is a carrier-destroying weapon,'' said Orville Hanson, who
evaluated weapons systems for 38 years with the Navy. ``That's its
purpose.''
A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia
also offered the missile to Iran, although there's no evidence a sale
has gone through. In Iranian hands, the Sizzler could challenge the
ability of the U.S. Navy to keep open the Strait of Hormuz, through
which an estimated 25 percent of the world's oil traffic flows.
Fast and Low-Flying
``This is a very low-flying, fast missile,'' said retired Rear
Admiral Eric McVadon, a former U.S. naval attache in Beijing. ``It won't
be visible until it's quite close. By the time you detect it to the time
it hits you is very short. You'd want to know your capabilities to
handle this sort of missile.''
Charts prepared by the Navy for a February 2005 briefing for defense
contractors said the Sizzler, which is also called the SS-N-27B, starts
out flying at subsonic speeds. Within 10 nautical miles of its target, a
rocket-propelled warhead separates and accelerates to three times the
speed of sound, flying no more than 10 meters (33 feet) above sea level.
Final Approach
On final approach, the missile ``has the potential to perform very
high defensive maneuvers,'' including sharp-angled dodges, the Office of
Naval Intelligence said in a manual on worldwide maritime threats.
