Iranian officials said the upgrade project would replace previous plans to develop the longer-range Shihab-4. But officials said the range of the Shihab-3 would also be extended.
"We will be optimizing our Shihab-3 instead," acting Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said recently. "Such allegations [of developing the Shihab-4] are part of the U.S. and Israeli psychological war against the Islamic Republic."
Other officials said the upgrade of the Shihab-3 would extend the range of the missile to at least 1,600 kilometers. They said some of the improvements were demonstrated in a Shihab-3 launch in June 2003, when the missile reached a range of 1,380 kilometers. The Shihab-4 was planned for a range of 2,000 kilometers.
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