Iran Military Forum

sorry, it was posted already.

this thread can be deleted.

Missile in the above footage "Iranian Missile Silo" seems to have Infrared, Nightvision Optical Seeker. Seeker at the nose of missile is covered by small Dome that looks like optically transparent Sapphire Dome.

So Ballistic Missile locks on Infrared, Nightvision Optical Photograph. Photograph is probably taken by long range UAV.

Optical Seekers for Ballistic Missile is new development in Ballistic Missile Guidence Technology.

"Seems to have in Infrared, Night-vision Optical Seeker..."  Numbers, what in the video leads you to this conclusion.  The missile shown has a rounded, graphite tip at the top of the warhead section, a feature typical of missiles having a range over ~250km.  It provides thermal protection during re-entry.  [The Ghadr-1 re-entry vehicle will absorb almost 100 Mega Joules as it descends toward the target, for example].  But I am curious about how you came to your conclusions....thanks.

Does that whole infrastructure just have one silo? It seems like in the video there was only one door to a silo. Is that correct?

The video says that Iran has these throughout Iran if my translation was correct. However, does Iran have multiple silos within a single underground base like other militaries or are the designs just to have one silo per underground facility making it more like a mini-silo base?

The silo shown in the video is the first silo made in Iran and for testing purposes. The other silos which are operational and of tactical importance, will not be shown to you, or me, or anyone else for that matter.

This video is from June 2011 correct?

Iran was reported to have built silos a long time ago, so I assume this silo is not recently made if it is one of Iran's first silos. It seems it might no longer be operational and is more a symbolic showing of Iran's progress.

This video is from June 2011 correct?

Iran was reported to have built silos a long time ago, so I assume this silo is not recently made if it is one of Iran's first silos. It seems it might no longer be operational and is more a symbolic showing of Iran's progress.

Yes the video is from 2011.

Indeed it might not be operational and only was used for testing purposes. This makes more sense. unveiling something you are no longer in need of, or use, while hiding and not showing the ones you are in need of and do use.

I also assume the location has also been already given away. Since the video shows Iran launching a shahab-3, for intelligence agencies that have spy satellites surveillance over Iran along with early warning radars in place, it would have picked up a launch of the missile from that section of Iran where ever it is. So a little bit more surveillance would eventually give away the exact spot.

What do you think?

That's a good analysis. Considering that the missile silos in Azerbaijan province, near Tabriz I believe, are well known (there are pictures of it on this forum as well) that could be the silo we are seeing in the video. However, we can never be certain of that. 

Iranian military officials and political officials are master chess players, in the world of politics. They have many surprises up their sleeves.

It will be difficult for Iran to keep the silos, regardless of their location, a secret.  The Shahab-3 and Ghadr-1 missiles use the same propellants found in the Scud-B/-C missiles.  If the propellants are loaded into the missile, as one assumes would be the case for a silo based missile, then the oxidizer and fuel will have to be removed every 30 days or so, and the missile itself cleaned and refurbished.  All of this requires logistics activities, which will give away the location of the silo.

This is why the Soviets and Americans (and the French) built very robust silos capable of withstanding all but a direct hit by a nuclear warhead.  Iran could build reinforced silos with enough strength to withstand most conventional explosives, except for the earth penetrating ones.  But I would note that the silo shown in the video is not reinforced.  The retractable cover, for example, is too thin to stop even a conventional precision munition. Much work is left to be done if Iran hopes to protect its silo based missiles.  Seems to me that mobility is a better strategy, and it exists today.

Again, I believe that this was one of Iran's first silos. The design and showing of it leads me to believe it is more a museum now then an actual active silo. I think Iran's current silos are probably more advanced then this one. For one, the Natanz nuclear facility and Fordo nuclear facility show that Iran can develop deep underground sophisticated reinforced installations. So naturally, such a knowledge would also translate to more advanced and reinforced missile silos.

Furthermore, I believe that since you alluded to the point about Shahab-3's fuel issue. I think that Iran's silos will begin using more of Sejil-2 solid fuel missiles to avoid this problem. I mean Shahab-3's or Ghadr-1 will still be used, but it also makes sense for Iran to have install Sejil-2 solid fuel missiles in its silos.

What puzzle me is that Iran has put so much money to refine a technology that is deprecated; The USA, Russia and China have decommissioned most of their silos and continue to do so, they prefer mobile launchers for the ICBM (or submarines). Generally the iranian approach is rational but there are a few cases where I scratch my head, in the case of the Bavar-2 and the silos as well...If you don't plan to use solid fuel rockets, accounting for the launching time and the exposure of the shahab, perhaps, but Iran certanly started to plan the replacement of the shahab with the sejiil many years ago (and to use mobile launchers exclusivelly).As Sobaka suggested silos are more vulnerable to modern weapons than, let say in the 1960's..

Are you sure Iran has invested that much into it? One video showing one supposed site does not really say anything...

i found some photos from an Abandoned Missile Launch Site of the soviets in Kazakhstan, it was intresting for me to find some similarities between that and the silo that was shown in this video.

http://englishrussia.com/2008/12/26/abandoned-missile-launch-site/

Numbers wrote:

Very well Camouflaged Silo is hard to find from Spy Satellites or Aircrafts
Different camouflage types exist. For example Iran can use Camouflage Nets on top of silo and Desert Sand Glued on silo's retractable cover.

Detection methods that I remember (from the top of my mind):
1) Thermal difference (via satellite imagery), a bunker has not the same temperature than the soil elsewhere, nor the sand above it, at least for the parts that are not deeply buried.
2) During the construction phase ( with all the machinery involved).
3) Earth density (satellite imagery with other radars); if the earth has been moved, it doesn't present the same image
4) Air conduits are detected, so you have a bunker nearby
5) Some low frequency radars that can penetrate earth

And Soboka brought another one

then the oxidizer and fuel will have to be removed every 30 days or so, and the missile itself cleaned and refurbished

This involve a lot of activity, trucks,etc...
Saddam Hussein used to burry his tanks in Kuwait to prevent the US aircrafts to find them; they were virtually all destroyed, one by one, via thermal imagery because steel absorbed the sunlight and restitute the heat during the night.
The best defense against the American satellites is mobility.
But I think there might be another hypothesis behind the fact that Iran wished to build silos for the shahab. It takes a while before to master the technology behind the silos asccording to this officer. The shahab can actually be launched from a TEL vehicle but also from a silo. However designing a mobile launcher for a very long range missile, ICBM or not, is enormously complicated. It took a while for Russia to get the Topol-M. If the  iranian engineers wished to have the option to build ultimatelly a very long range missile, like an ICBM, the safest option was to master the technology of silos in parallel rather than to gamble on an indigenous TOPOL. So the silos do not represent the backbone of the ballistic capabilities, which will be based on solid fuel missiles (sejil) and mobile launchers, but it's a first foot in the necessary technology for an ICBM.