Arctic Sea: hiding the S300 Missiles Aboard

Naval S300
A reporter has visited a ship similar to the Finnish-built Arctic Sea, to decide if it could have carried Russian S300 missiles destined for Iran: "The only feasible place is the ballast tanks, so I squeezed through a manhole and climbed into one of them to take a look.

Access to all these dark, damp areas is through an oval hole about 80cm (31 inches) at its widest.

The space beneath is fairly generous but manoeuvring a long, thick missile in there would be impossible."

Actually, the S300 missile is 7 meters long in its fiberglass launcher/container (22.90 ft), and .76 m (2.49 ft) span. The Arctic Sea is 105.1 meters in length. How the ballast tanks are now configured in the phantom ship is unknown. Further, the fiberglass container is not difficult to duplicate and the missile is comprised of smaller components.

"Military experts do not rule out the possibility of on-site S-300 assembly from components allegedly supplied to Iran. "

In January 2008, "Esmaeil Kosari, deputy chairman of the parliamentary commission on national security and foreign policy, told Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency Sunday that Russia was already sending components for its formidable S-300PMU-1 system -- NATO designation SA-20 Gargoyle -- to the Islamic republic."

In May, 2009, "Russia's customs service said Thursday it uncovered a ring of active and retired military officers suspected of involvement in stealing millions of dollars worth of missile components and smuggling them out of Russia.

The Federal Customs Service said it has detained a dozen suspects and confiscated about 22 tons of missile components intended for smuggling.

It said that the criminal ring had smuggled parts of S-75, S-125, S-200 and S-300 air defense missile systems.

The customs agency said that the ring included Russian military officers on active duty along with some retirees and citizens of Belarus and Ukraine. It said the suspects were believed to work with senior officers of the military's air defense forces stationed in Russia's northwest, but would not give any names.
The latest capture of illegal weapons smuggling was reportedly only a part of a larger operation which has been going on for some time. Previously, Russian and other European customs had thwarted attempts to smuggle missile components for Latvia and "an unspecified Asian country", the Russian customs said."

The various methods the Russians are suspected of using to remove the missiles from the Arctic Sea in the Canaries would be applicable to oncarriage to Iran. Perhaps the missiles were transshipped by air in their containers or component parts as from Gran Canaria. Perhaps they were transshipped at sea as the 'evidence' was to a tanker (not a cargo vessel), the Iman. Tankers are the stuff of Iran's seaborne commerce.

Iran's Thondar missile boats

China reportedly sold Iran between 10 and 40 Houdong missile boats, officially named Thondar in Iranian service and possibly more than 80 C-802 anti-ship cruise missiles during the mid-1990s. In November 1996, Iran conducted land, sea and air war games in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and successfully test-fired a C-802 anti-ship cruise missile from one of its Houdong patrol boats. The United States sought to pressure China over these sales and their potentially destabilizing character. The Chinese government agreed to US requests in 1998 to halt further C-802 sales. Circumventing this restriction, Iran obtained a license to produce the weapons, primarily for its Thondar missile boats.

Iran launches new missile boat

Commander of the Iranian Army's Navy Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyarisaid on 29 Sep that Iran's new Sina-class missile-launching frigates enjoy the most advanced systems and equipment. Iran claims Sina has more than a hundred radar, artillery, electronic and telecommunication systems and is also equipped with modern navigation systems.

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Iran purchased 12 Combattante II missile boats from France, seeing them delivered between 1974 and 1981. These 275 ton displacement boats, officially named Kaman in Iranian service, have a top speed of 37.5 knots. They represented some of Iran's most modern vessels of Western origin. Two were lost in combat, one to Iraqi forces in 1980 and another to US forces in 1988.

The main armament of these ships was in the form of a four round missile launcher and a 76mm OTO-Melara automatic cannon. The anti-ship missiles were originally the RGM-84 Harpoon, but have since been replaced by the locally produced Noor, a license produced copy of the Chinese C-802 missile.

These missile boats remained an important part of the Iranian naval forces as of 2008, and had led to earlier developments announced in 2003 to develop a locally produced version. The first of these Sina Class missile boats, essentially locally produced Iranian versions of the Kaman, standard with C-802 missiles and an improved fire control radar, entered service in 2006. Iran had two of these boats in service by 2008, with another in production[now launched]. These boats appear identical to the modified Kamans with the exception of the radar radome.