LONDON: Iran has developed a second rocket-launching facility which will likely be used to test ballistic missiles, a London-based defence analysis group said yesterday.
IHS Jane’s said it had pinpointed the site outside the city of Shahrud, around 350 kilometres east of Tehran, near the Caspian Sea and the Turkmenistan border.
By analysing satellite imagery, Jane’s said that construction began at the site between May and September 2010 — around the same time as the expansion of Iran’s existing launch pad in Semnan.
“Imagery analysis of the Shahrud site suggests it will be a strategic facility used to test ballistic missiles, leaving the other two sites free to handle Iran’s ambitious programme of satellite launches,” said Matthew Clements, editor at IHS Jane’s Military and Security Assessments Centre.
The site is around 40 kilometres southeast of Shahrud.
By August 2011, a major construction project was under way, covering approximately 100 square kilometres, Jane’s said.
The facility has “several primary functional areas: administration and support; horizontal processing where rockets are prepared for launch; launch pad; and an underground facility connected to the site by a new road and an underground cable,” said Jane’s.
The latest images from July 6 this year show Iran has made significant progress, the group said.
“Ground scarring and road network construction throughout the facility strongly suggest that this is only the first phase of a significantly more ambitious construction plan.”
AFP
