Iran, North Korea Seen Collaborating on Rocket Launchpad

From NTI.org (March 8):

Iran appears to have worked with North Korea in preparing a new rocket launchpad under construction east of Tehran, an independent defense analysis firm asserted Friday (see GSN, June 12, 2009).

Iran seems poised to do additional work on the launch site, located near the city of Semnan, the group IHS Jane's stated. With about 30 feet in additional scaffolding, the facility could be used for the Middle Eastern nation's recently announced Simorgh space launch vehicle, Agence France-Presse quoted the organization as saying.

"The development of the Semnan facility and the Simorgh SLV both demonstrate the likelihood of collaboration with North Korea in Iran's missile program," the group said. "The platforms seen on the new gantry tower resemble those seen on the gantry tower at North Korea's new launchpad at Tongchang. A drainage pit [560 feet] directly in front of the pad also mirrors one at Pyongyang's new west-coast launch site. [read more]

Iran and N. Korea sure aren't intimidated by Obama that's for sure. When Reagan was president countries feared and respected him. Not with this administration sadly.

The article goes on to say that Iran on Sunday started building a new type of cruise missile that could eliminate objects as heavy as 3,000 tons. Nice. To put that amount of tons in perspective, that's almost the same weight of the Titanic.