New at Reason

David Weigel | April 4, 2006

Condi Rice shows humility, Iran shows off its weapons capability, and the high court defines legal applicability -- in the new Reason Express.

Comments

|4.4.06 @ 11:23AM|#

The IPTV link was interesting, too bad it was written by the economically-challenged.

|4.4.06 @ 12:32PM|#

Iran is clearly worried about a military strike. Not sure what they achieve by advertising their weapons tests, though. The deterrent effect on the U.S. is minimal, and simply draws attention to potential threats that can then be planned for. Perhaps they are trying to influence other countries, but international opposition didn't stop the invasion of Iraq. I am guessing this is about domestic Iranian politics. Strategy Page talks about the torpedo: http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htsub/articles/20060404.aspx. Bottom line is it is very fast, but short-range and inaccurate.

|4.4.06 @ 1:17PM|#

I read that the range of the torpedo, at the least the Soviet, er Russian, version is only 7km. So a mission against a carrier battle group is virtually guaranteed to result in loss of the sub. Anybody know how many submarines the Iranian navy has?

VM|4.4.06 @ 1:23PM|#

"Anybody know how many submarines the Iranian navy has?"

welllll, if they actually closed the goddamned screen door, they would have had one more...

|4.4.06 @ 1:41PM|#

Sulla: I think the probable delivery vehicle will not be nearly as sophisticated as a submarine.

|4.4.06 @ 3:22PM|#

So what would you use, Ron? You're not getting within 7km of an aircraft carrier on any kind of surface ship that's not a US naval warship.

Nord|4.4.06 @ 3:42PM|#

If you're interested, have a look at some excellent pictures of anti-Condi demonstrations in England:

http://nordish.net/blog/?p=37

|4.5.06 @ 2:36AM|#

This bit of sabre-rattling sounds a little fanciful � a top speed of 223 mph is claimed for the weapon

The speed isn't so fanciful, cavitation rounds can do it. The accuracy problem wouldn't be that hard to fix, and the Russians have the technology.

The range problem wouldn't be so easy to fix. Could they get close enough to actually use one? I have serious doubts, but maybe if they got lucky...and even then, would the warhead be big enough to really do in a carrier? Again I've got some doubts.

The other problem is that the Russians have historically been good at producing a few of any kind of high tech gadget. They've come up with better stuff than we have at times. But they've never been very good at mass producing them. I can't believe the Iranians are going to do them one better on this front.

I think if you were really going to do some damage with these things you'd need more than a few, so you could try many times (kamakazi go-to-your-virgins-now runs) and take the odds that a few would get lucky.

Not sure what they achieve by advertising their weapons tests

They're advertising so opinion columnists have something to talk about. Ain't it great? In a capitalist world even your enemies contribute to the overall well being of your economy. :)