It is no coincidence that Iran fired its salvo of 9 ballistic missiles on July 9 while the G-8 leaders in Japan were calling on Iran to suspend its uranium-enrichment program. Its pyrotechnic display was a political statement, not a demonstration of any new military capability. All the missiles had been tested before; all but the Shahab-3 fly only 70 to 180 miles and are a threat to those on Iran’s borders, but no one else. Iran claims the Shahab can now fly 1250 miles, but scientists I talked to (sometimes you really do need to be a rocket scientist) are very skeptical. “This would be a huge leap in capability,” says Dr. David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists, “If true, it would almost double the missile’s range. I’d have to see a lot more before I accepted this claim.”
