EMPs from Shipping Containers?

The Russians are marketing missiles that without warning pop out of ordinary shipping containers and fire. One of these sold to enemies that contain four missiles could electromagnetically pulse the U.S. and kill more people than imaginable -- far more than any attack on the military.

Iran builds nuclear-capable cruise missile able to strike Israel from afar
DEBKAfile Special Report - May 11, 2010, 1:01 PM

"This is an extremely serious threat to Israel," Yair Shamir, chairman of Israel's Aerospace Industries warned in a lecture, naming the new weapon as the KH-55 cruise missile, based on a model Tehran received from Ukraine in 2006 and upgraded - together with an air-launched version.

"The pace of missile development (in Iran) is much faster than that of the solutions," Shamir said. "The new element is that Iran is already in space" - an intimation that its activities in space were a key element in accelerating Tehran's missile program.

Shamir rarely talks in public on security matters. DEBKAfile's military sources report he apparently found it necessary to speak out in view of the defense minister Ehud Barak's soothing assessments, his efforts to downplay the peril from Tehran and denials that Iran had become an existential threat to Israel.

The defense minister was also challenged by President Shimon Peres who, speaking in Moscow Monday, May 11, cautioned against nonchalance in the face of the threats to destroy Israel, which came mainly from Tehran.

(He also noted that no ruler but Syria's Bashar Assad would try to pretend that missiles for Hizballah were harbingers of peace.)

DEBKAfile's military sources note that Shamir's was the first authoritative voice to verify Iran's possession of a nuclear-capable, long-range-missile capable of striking Israel without leaving its own airspace. The rumors of its acquisition circulating for some years had been treated with some skepticism. Now, Western sources confirm that Ukraine did indeed sell Iran a dozen KH-55 missiles capable of carrying conventional or nuclear warheads, but they are not sure if the warheads were part of the consignment or just the diagrams and instructions on how to fit them.

The Israeli aerospace expert disclosed that Iranian scientists are working on lengthening the cruise missile's range beyond its regular 2.500 kilometers and developing a version for the use of fighter bombers. This would enable Iranian warplanes to shoot missiles against targets not only in Israel but as far away as Central Europe, without leaving their own airspace and risking exposure to American or Israeli air attack.

Iran builds nuclear-capable cruise missile able to strike Israel from afar
DEBKAfile Special Report - April 26, 2010, 7:19 PM (GMT+02:00)

This relatively cheap, extra-smart, easy-to-use Club-K Container Missile System, which Moscow has put on the open market, allows cruise missiles concealed in freight containers to be launched from a prepositioned or moving land or sea platform. It is virtually undetectable by radar until activated. No wonder, Iran and Venezuela were keenly interested when the Club-K was put on the market at the Defense Services Asia exhibition in Malaysia this week for $15 million.

Western military experts are calling it a "real maritime fear for anyone with a waterfront". The container-cum-missiles, carried by a ship, fishing vessel or truck can approach a targeted coast, highway or international railway and strike behind the target's missile defenses without alerting radar monitors or even surveillance drones and satellites.

In Iranian hands, it would make the targeting of its nuclear facilities very difficult. Able to wipe out an aircraft carrier up to 400 kilometers away, the system's manufacturer, Novator, is directing its marketing tactics at anyone under threat of military action from the United States. One expert accused the Russians of proliferating ballistic missiles on an unheard-of scale.

At the Malaysian exhibition, the marketing film showed the Club-K being activated from an ordinary truck. (See picture.) The truck pulls up, whereupon the container roof lifts up to reveal four 3?-54?E, 3?-54?E1 and 3?-14?E cruise missiles ready to fire. The operator then pushes a button and the missiles, which have a range of 350 km, are launched without further preparation.

DEBKAfile's military sources warn that the sale of Club-K cruise missile systems to Iran or Syria and their transfer to Hizballah would give them an edge substantial enough to be a game-changer into the Middle East balance of strength. They are capable of surreptitiously approaching Israeli, Iraqi and any other coastlines in the region, and send missiles flying against an American, Arab or Israeli strategic or military target before their targets know they are under attack.

The missile specialist Novator, which maintains a manufacturing plant in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains, produces an array of missiles against air, sea and land targets, including cruise missiles launched from submarines, as well as the advanced S-300 missile interceptor, which Russia contracted to sell Iran but has so far not delivered.

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