Stump the experts: Iran launches IRBM missile with 2,000 KM range

A report published earlier today by "experts" stated:

 

While Iran could, perhaps in six or eight years, develop a missile with a nuclear warhead and a 2,000-kilometer (1,200 mile) range - double its longest-range missile at present - the report said it's virtually impossible to predict how long it would take the country to produce a modern intercontinental ballistic missile.

 

....

 

The scientists and experts concluded that there is no imminent threat of Iran firing intermediate-range or intercontinental ballistic missiles - and if there was such a threat, the proposed U.S. missile defense system in Europe would not provide a dependable defense against it.

 

But Iran launched an intermediate range ballistic missile today. Either Iran is wrong, or the experts are wrong. I'm betting on Iran being right. What does this do to expert predictions about when Iran will have nuclear weapons?

 

Ami Isseroff

 

 

May 20, 2009
Iran Says It Tests New Missile
By REUTERS

Filed at 5:02 a.m. ET

 

 

TEHRAN, May 20 (Reuters) - Iran successfully launched an advanced surface-to-surface missile with a range of around 2,000 km (1,200 miles) on Wednesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.

 

"The Sejil 2 missile, which has an advanced technology, was launched today ... and it landed exactly on the target," Ahmadinejad said during a visit to the northern Semnan province, where IRNA said the launch took place.

 

A range of 2,000 km would be almost as far as another Iranian missile, Shahab 3, and would enable it to reach Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf.

 

The announcement is likely to arouse further concern in the West about Iran's military ambitions. The United States and its allies suspect the Islamic Republic is seeking to build nuclear bombs. Tehran denies the charge.

 

Iran said in November it test fired a Sejil missile, describing it as a new generation of surface-to-surface missile. Tehran said it was ready to defend itself against any attacker.

 

Washington said at the time that the test highlighted the need for a missile defence system it plans to base in Poland and the Czech Republic to counter threats from what it calls "rogue states".