Iran explosion at Revolutionary Guards military base
Seventeen soldiers have been killed in an explosion at a military base near Iran's capital Tehran, officials say.Story continued here
The blast occurred when weapons were being moved inside a Revolutionary Guards depot, a spokesman for the elite unit told state TV.
Windows in nearby buildings were shattered and the blast was heard in central Tehran, 40 km (25 miles) away.
Two hours after the explosion a fire still raged and there were traffic jams on nearby roads, a local reporter said.
Haaretz reports that according to a spokesman for the opposition-group MEK, the base in question was the 'Modarres' garrison for the IRGC's missile units, including the Raad-5 brigade which is reported to operate the Shahab-3. Is there any truth to this statement? Just what do we know about the Modarres Garrison?
From the news reports we know it's west of Tehran, and adjacent to the towns of Bidganeh and Shahriar; thankfully, it's not to difficult to find. The 'facility' is actually a handful of facilities clustered around one another in amongst a patch of hills. The footprint of all the facilities covers an area roughly 24 km long and 6 km tall. This can in turn be bisected, for the sake of description, into a northern and southern half and which is bisected by a road running north-east to south-west. The northern half tends to hold facilities related to production and testing of missiles while the southern half tends to contain garrison forces.
Emergency services who responded to the scene of the explosion, including the Red Crescent, were reportedly not allowed inside the base to provide medical services due to the highly secretive nature of the base. This is supported by satellite imagery which depicts multiple levels of security perimeters consisting of earthen ramparts, fences, guard-posts and entry-control-points (ECPs). A good indicator of a facilities value and importance could very well be the degree to which it is protected with barriers.
Area Overview
Industrial Facility
Amir-al-Mo'menin
Missile Test Facility 1
Missile Test Facility 2
Garrison 1
Garrison 2
Miscellaneous Facilities
Galen , did you just use debka as a source?
ReplyDeleteGalen,
ReplyDeleteThe facilities seem to lack the buildings and layout of a solid-propellant production plant, so that would rule out an accident during manufacture. That leaves assembly procedures or static testing of the Sajjil or other large solid rocket motor. There are two static test stand sites, but they seem to small to host a 10-ton or larger motor. However, there might be a larger stand located in the area you marked "suspected" test stands.
I suspect that it is here that something went wrong when either setting up the test, with observers at the test stand, or during the test with the control room being too close. The former seems more reasonable. Your thoughts?
I'm honestly not sure what a solid-propellant production plant would actually look like, do you know where we could look at others in Iran to compare them to?
ReplyDeleteAn explosion during a motor test is definitely plausible, especially if it was a large missile. The only explicit hitch I can see with this is that the explosion is placed at the facility closest to Bidqaneh which only contains hardened shelters and high-bay garages, no test stands. This may be an innacuracy in reporting, but it may also indicate that something went when the missile was being prepared or transported to-and-from storage (perhaps prior to the test?).
*...something went wrong when the missile was being prepared...
ReplyDeleteGalen,thanks. It seems reasonable that several people may have been near the missile/rocket motor during preparations, thus the high casualty numbers.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been odd for them to have the production buildings so close to Bidqaneh as well.
For a typical production site lay-out, search on Google Earth the Alliant plant hear Magna, Utah or Thiokol 20km or so west of Brigham City Utah. Most of the Russian plants are obscured on GE.
It is believed that Gen. Tehrani Moghdam was present at the testing site of a new ballistic missile when it exploded, killing him and 16 other IRGC officers and personnel.
ReplyDelete