Iran's Military Bragging

Flying boats. Shake in your boots American military.

"A super-modern flying boat was successfully tested in the 'Great Prophet' war game in Persian Gulf waters," state television said.

"Because of its hull's advanced design, no radar at sea or in the air can locate it. It can lift out of the water. It is wholly domestically built and can launch missiles with precise targeting while moving."

A quick thought, if you have a weapon like this, isn't it a better idea to keep it secret? Doesn't such a brilliant powerful tool lose some of its edge if you tell the enemy about it? Doesn't the enemy get warning that they should develop a countermeasure?

Or is it more likely that this is just a stunt?

The Defense Ministry was not immediately able to give details of a "flying boat" that was shown on television.

The small propeller-driven aircraft floated on a trimaran hull until it took off and flew low over the surface of the water. State television said it could reach speeds of 100 knots.

I'm betting the F-15s are terrified of a 100 knot flying boat.

This WaPo article has an interesting analysis of the Iranian military claims, including the appearance that many of these weapons have similar counterparts developed by Russia.

The new weapons, many of them shown on Iranian state TV during their tests, have come with impressive claims:

_ A missile, the Fajr-3, that is invisible to radar and able to strike several targets with multiple warheads.

_ A high-speed torpedo, the Hoot, able to move at some 223 mph, up to four times faster than a normal torpedo, and fired by ships cloaked to radar.

_ A surface-to-sea missile, the Kowsar, with remote-control and searching systems that cannot be scrambled.

_ A "super-modern flying boat," undetectable by radar and able to launch missiles with precise targeting while skimming low over the surface of the water at a top speed of 100 nautical mph.

and

And some experts cast doubt on just how radar-evading Iran's ships and missiles are.

Iran's radars are not as advanced as those of Israel, for example _ meaning that perhaps the weapons can avoid the radar that Iran has access to, but not more advanced types, said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born, Israel-based analyst.

"The question here is, what radar did they test their own weapons against? If it's the radar they've been using for all these years, then that's not saying 100 percent that these things are undetectable," he said.

Others questioned if Iran developed the weapons on its own.

I'm going to bet that most of the Iranian military 'news' is just a lot of hot air.