Israel Matzav

Breaking: Iran test-fires new Sejil 2 missile

Iran's state television announced on Wednesday morning that Iran has successfully test-fired a new, long-range Sejil 2 missile. The move is likely to increase tensions with the West.

Here's a video of a Sejil (or Sajil) missile test from 2008. The missile can hit Tel Aviv and Athens. The audio is in Persian - if anyone can translate, please do.

Let's go to the videotape. More below the fold.



Another Sejil-2 was tested in May. The Sejil-1 was tested in November 2008 (that's the video above) and has a range of 1930 km while the Sejil 2 was first tested in May 2009 and has a range of 2000-2500 km. Here's a map that shows the Sejil-2's range:



The Sejil-2 is considered a medium range ballistic missile. It is possible that this version of the Sejil-2 has a longer range than the one that was tested in May or that other improvements to the Sejil-2 have been made. If so, that has not been disclosed at this writing.

What could go wrong?

UPDATE 10:30 AM

This is from Reuters via MSNBC:

Al Alam, Iran's Arabic-language satellite television, said the Sejil missile had a longer range than the Shahab missile, which Iranian officials in the past have said can reach targets 1,250 miles away.

That would put Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf within reach.

Well, we knew that already.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:14 AM