Iran said it had test-fired a new surface-to-sea missile with remote-control and searching systems.
Also, a land-to-sea missile struck and damaged the destroyer HMS Glamorgan (June 12), presaging more strikes from land in future maritime wars.
On its Web site, the broadcaster showed a photograph of what it said was a long-range land-to-sea missile called Qader, or Capable, being fired during war games in southern Iran.
Iran's commander-in-chief, Yahya Rahim Safavi, shrugged off the US build-up yesterday, saying: "Our coast-to-sea missile systems can now reach the breadth and length of the Gulf and Oman Sea, and no warships can pass in the Gulf without being in range of our coast-to-sea missiles".
Mr. Ban cited Israeli reports that Hezbollah, the radical Shiite group in southern Lebanon, had installed long-range rockets, shore-to-sea missiles and an air defense unit.
Two of the weapons systems that Israel has identified as game-changing "red line weapons" — SA-17 antiaircraft weapons and Yakhont shore-to-sea missiles — were supplied by the Russians, he added.
These consist of either three or four NATO RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile launchers designed for defense against aircraft and anti-ship missiles as well as either three or four 20 mm Phalanx CIWS missile defense cannon.
The heavy pounding attracted Iraqi attention; in response to the battleship's artillery strike, the Iraqis fired two HY-2 Silkworm missiles at the battleship, one of which missed, while the other was intercepted by a GWS-30 Sea Dart missile launched from the British air defence destroyer within 90 seconds and crashed into the sea roughly 700 yards in front of Missouri.
The scientific tests concluded that the fragments were not from a British Sea Dart missile, despite a Sea Dart casing later being found "several hundred yards" away from the wreckage.
Later that day, Cardiff shot down what would prove to be the last Argentine aircraft lost during the war, with a Sea Dart missile Canberra bomber B-108 of ("Bombing Group 2") en route to bomb Port Harriet House.
This is consistent with the more assertive military stance that Japan has taken in recent years, such as the deployment of warships to the Indian Ocean, and the development of sea-based missile defence.
