Iran wants to trade oil in Euros and that would impact Dick's bottom line. In a more long term scenario global corporations may find a far greater profit margin in 6 billion easily exploitable souls vs the 300 million energy gluttons found here. Deplete our military, economy, social fabric, health and sooner or later we are not "number 1". How many countries do you think PNAC studied before they picked Iraq.

There seems to be a number of manufacturers for this class of ordnance. I found a number of places where they manufacture this type of mortar round, but NONE in Iran. Other than Pakistan, I've found manufacturers mostly in the UK, but also in the US and Canada.

http://www.pmulcahy.com/mortars/iranian_mortars.html

Theres some pictures here, but really have no idea if it is what you are looking for:

http://www.irandefence.net/showthread.php?t=8215

But they only have pictures of the launchers, not the rounds.

...maybe not. Kurt Nimmo at Globalresearch has the following to offer:

According to a report offered by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, connected to the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the neocon Brookings Institute, the smallest mortar produced by Iran is the 107mm M-30.

See here and here.

TimBuck2

...under the heading "Defence Production", at the bottom of the page: 81mm mortar. As to why it's not listed in the section on artillery on pages 14 and 15 - small mortars (60mm and 81/82mm) are pretty commonly thought of as batallion/company level assets. They're thought of differently from artillery and the larger mortars. It's not that the Iranians don't have these assets, it's just that they frequently aren't mentioned in this type of summary, same as they don't mention small arms, etc. Don't ask me why they don't mention it, they just don't seem to.

It's been my experience that globalresearch does not have a terribly good track record when it comes to military affairs.

As an aside it amuses me that the guy is linking to the same photo this thread linked to - I wonder whether they're reading us? A still of an Iranian produced 81mm shell can be found here, from the website of the Iranian Defence Industries Organization.

"Political Islam is a dream or a nightmare, but not a sociological reality." - Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

no.

ONLY until proof is found one way or the other. I personally jumped the gun, thinking I had a match with the Pakistani ordnance. I'd rather be sure before going further.

The only clear pictures of Iranian Ordnance I found were at iranmilitaryforum.com. They have nothing which looks like those pictures.

Based on my research (see comments above), the Hadid is a replica of an Israeli original. That would fit your theory.

just found it interesting that years ago they sold to Iran.

If we are talking about the kind of bombs that get dropped by planes then I would say yes, English it is. If we are talking about bombs disguised as cars or trucks then the answer is probably no. Both cause the same thing.

I think now would be a good time for those who know how, to start looking back on those stories of arms dumps being looted back at the beginning of this smeg up.

Carib

"I am a terrorist - I have a bomb, but no airplane".

http://www.diomil.ir/en/amig.aspx?search_id=mb81smoke

"Political Islam is a dream or a nightmare, but not a sociological reality." - Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

:)

"Political Islam is a dream or a nightmare, but not a sociological reality." - Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

C-802

Range of the C-802 is thought to be 120 km, which essentially includes most of the Persian Gulf from the Iranian shore, even if their missile boats and subs stayed near their docks. This is their back porch.

The Yingji-82 or YJ-82 (Chinese: 鹰击-82, literally "Eagle Strike"; NATO reporting name: CSS-N-8 Saccade) is a Chinese anti-ship missile first unveiled in 1989 by the China Haiying Electro-Mechanical Technology Academy (CHETA), also known as the Third Academy.

Since the Yingji-82 missile has a small radar reflectivity and is only about five to seven meters above the sea surface when it attacks the target, and since its guidance equipment has strong anti-jamming capability, target ships have a very low success rate in intercepting the missile.

The hit probability of the Yingji-82 is estimated to be as high as 98 percent. The Yingji-82 can be launched from airplanes, surface ships, submarines and land-based vehicles, and has been considered along with the US Harpoon missile as among the best anti-ship missiles of its generation.[1] Its export name is the C-802.

given that the Iranians have that kind of firepower, wouldn't it make sense to sit down with them and come to an agreement before someone lights a match and the Middle East goes up in smoke? I.e. doesn't their possession turn Iran into a formidable foe, unlike Iraq and Afghanistan who have mostly conventional arms?

All sorts of things that would make sense vis a vis Iranian-American relations have been quite ignored and/or deliberately scuppered by various factions in both countries over an extended period. I've kind of come to the conclusion that neither of the countries is grown up enough to be trusted with their own relations with each other. Quite distressing, really.

"Political Islam is a dream or a nightmare, but not a sociological reality." - Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

Iran draws their mark in the sand and the United States then sketches theirs. The two of them play a game of moving lines instead of talking to each other and resolving their differences. Neither one trusts the other, and for very good reasons. Nor do I believe they will accept an intermediary attempting to broker a peace agreement as the world plunges toward nuclear Armageddon. This happened before (Cuban missile crisis) when there were adults in the Kremlin and in the White House. On that occasion there was an amicable settlement. With the present leadership in Iran and Washington, I am skeptical there will be an agreement that prevents the launching of an attack--the result of which will be a catastrophe.

...allegedly struck and seriously damaged the Israeli missile boat during the conflict with Hezbollah earlier this summer.

There's a whole lot of variables associated with the use of these things. In general US ships could shoot them down before they hit them - the question is whether they could in the numbers that are likely to be launched. Typically what one does as the attacker is try to saturate the defenders ability to intercept the missiles by launching a lot of them at once (as well as launching from unexpected directions, with surprise, etc. etc.).

"Political Islam is a dream or a nightmare, but not a sociological reality." - Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

- EOM

Given the tales out of southern Lebanon about pop up launchers, hardened sites and good camouflage, I'm quite leary of what's along that long, long southern shore of Iran. Quite apart from that nightmare potential, given the real limits on stand off distance and simply how crowded the Gulf is with traffic of various kinds, it is emphatically not my idea of a good place for a naval engagement.

"Political Islam is a dream or a nightmare, but not a sociological reality." - Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah

that America intentionally has a fleet in the Persian Gulf right now as these tensions are ramping up - trapped in a bathtub with a tiny drain, the only exit along an Iranian coast bristling with missiles with an unknown, potentially devastating ability to overwhelm American antimissile capabilities.

There are only a couple of explanations that make sense to me strategically. The ugliest and most likely one seems to me to be "sacrificing a rook". Some ruthless bastard thinks they need American ships on the floor of the Persian Gulf to politically justify the next step. A few thousand dead Americans would give the hawks a free hand.

I think someone wants - needs - to lose ships, and I think they're calculating they aren't going to lose many, and I also think they're wrong.

And after all, we would expect to see Iranian weapons in Iraq anyhow, since Iran armed SCIRI's Badr Brigade with Iranian weapons long before Li'l Georgie decided to invade Iraq (you might remember that SCIRI is the "Iraqi government" right now). The dates are the most interesting thing here though. As pointed out elsewhere, some of the munitions have 2006 dates, which proves that, err, Iran continues to arm the Badr Brigade. Not surprising. But the Badr Brigade isn't attacking the U.S., the Badr Brigade is otherwise known as "most of the Iraqi Army other than the Peshmerga".

The fact that they happen to be wearing Iranian livery doesn't make them anything other than what they are -- early 70's American fighter jets that the Shah bought and that the Iranian Air Force continues to fly. And adding a new tail to improve its low speed low altitude handling doesn't make it a new jet either, it just makes it a better ground attack jet (about all a F-5 is good for nowdays, other than "target drone").