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Fighter Aircraft Could Give Iran a Nuclear Delivery Option
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Simon Henderson - It is frequently argued that even if the Iranian regime achieves the ability to carry out a nuclear test, designing a deliverable missile warhead would still require two years of additional work. Yet this argument does not consider the possibility that Iran could use an aircraft as the delivery system instead of a missile. After all, this was the method used for the first atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Even a fighter jet can carry a comparatively small but powerful tactical nuclear weapon. In 1985, the Financial Times quoted intelligence officials stating that "Pakistan is working on the manufacture of an atomic bomb suitable for carrying by an F-16." Pakistani Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg notes in a new book that Dr. A.Q. Khan, director of Islamabad's nuclear program, "successfully developed the delivery system...through which atomic weapons could be carried and delivered to the desired targets by F-16 aircraft." Beg claimed that "the experiment of delivery system succeeded in August 1987." The writer directs the program on Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute.