Senior U.S. officials have been quoted by Fox News and NBC as saying that Iran has tested another advanced missile this week.
The high-speed torpedo, a cruise missile, was launched from a Yono-class miniature submarine. It was a model that is used solely by Iran and North Korea, leading to speculation that the two nations are once again collaborating on missile and nuclear technology.
It’s not clear whether the test was successful or not.
Mini-submarines are used for traveling and hiding in shallow water. The test was carried out near the Strait of Hormuz but within Iran’s maritime border, and not in international waters.
The Strait of Hormuz is a strategic choke point, in that it is the sole passage leading from the Persian Gulf to the open sea, through which more than 40 percent of the world’s oil is shipped.
According to the report, the missile has a range of more than nine and a half kilometers and can move at a speed of 400 kilometers per hour. The same missile was tested at an earlier stage by the Iranian army two years ago, in February 2015.
Intelligence reports quoted by Fox News said the Iranian submarine “was based on a Pyongyang design, the same type that sank a South Korean warship in 2010… Non-proliferation experts have long suspected North Korea and Iran are sharing expertise…”
