Tehran,(Iran): Iran said on Wednesday that it has successfully test-fired a "top secret" missile, the third within a week, state-run television reported.
The report called the missile an "ultra-horizon" weapon and said it could be fired from all military helicopters and jet fighters. A brief video clip showed the missile, fired from a helicopter, hitting a target on the surface of the water.
The tests come during war games being held by the elite Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea since Friday at a time of increased tensions with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program.
The television broadcast called the test a "turning point" in Iran's missile tests. It said the new missile does not require the OTHT (over the horizon targeting) system that other missiles must be equipped with to be able to make use of their maximum range.
The report said Iran is the first country to develop the technology for such a missile.
Wednesday's test follows that of two other missiles and two torpedoes since Friday. Iran has lauded these technological advances but the United States said Monday -- after the second torpedo test -- that while Iran may have made "some strides" in its military, it likely is exaggerating its capabilities.
Last Friday, Iran tested the Fajr-3, a missile that it said can avoid radars and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads.
On Tuesday, it tested a second radar-avoiding missile, a surface-to-sea weapon equipped with remote-control and searching systems and designed to sink ships. Its guidance system cannot be scrambled, military officials said. They said Iran has the capability of mass producing the medium-range missile, named Kowsar after a river in Muslim depictions of paradise.
Kowsar was tested in the Straits of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Gulf that is a vital corridor for oil supplies. That seemed to be a clear warning to the United States that Iran believes it has the capability to disable oil tankers moving through the Gulf.
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The Revolutionary Guards, the elite branch of Iran's military, have been holding their maneuvers -- code-named the "Great Prophet" -- since Friday, touting what they call domestically built technological advances in their armed forces.
But some military analysts in Moscow said it appears the high-speed torpedoes likely were Russian-built weapons that may have been acquired from China or the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Others have questioned just how radar-evading the missiles are. Iran's radars are not as advanced as those of Israel, for example -- meaning that perhaps the new weapons can avoid Iran's radar but not more advanced types.
On Tuesday, the Guards also tested what it called a "super-modern flying boat" capable of evading radar. The boat, looking like an aircraft, was shown taking off from the sea and flying low over the surface of the water. It said the craft can fly at a speed of 100 nautical miles per hour.
Iran said the torpedo tests were conducted Sunday and Monday. The torpedo -- called a "Hoot," or "whale" -- is able to move at 223 mph, too fast for any enemy ship to elude.
Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to improve its combat readiness and test locally made equipment such as missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane.
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