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Iran's Ballistic Missiles Improving, Pentagon Finds

(Bloomberg) Tony Capaccio - Iran's military continues to improve the accuracy and killing power of its long- and short-range ballistic missiles, including designing a weapon to target vessels, according to a Pentagon report to Congress. "Iran has boosted the lethality and effectiveness of existing systems by improving accuracy and developing new submunition payloads" that extend the destructive power over a wider area than a solid warhead, according to the June 29 report signed by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. The improvements are in tandem with regular ballistic-missile training that "continues throughout the country" and the addition of "new ships and submarines," the report found. The report was provided to the four congressional defense committees last week. "There was a theme that Iran is improving the accuracy and lethality of its missiles," said Congressional Research Service Iran analyst Kenneth Katzman. "U.S. government reports have previously always downplayed the accuracy and effectiveness of Iran's missile forces." The report added: "We assess with high confidence" that over 30 years Iran "has methodically cultivated a network of sponsored terrorist surrogates capable of targeting U.S. and Israeli interests....We suspect this activity continues."
2012-07-11 00:00:00
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