re: #194 Dark_Falcon

Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have been in leadership spat for quite some time (a prime example of this would the Ahmadinejad going on strike after he was ordered to reinstate his intelligence minister). By hyping the Iran’s technical prowess Ahmadinejad can build a base of support that isn’t dependent on the clerics.

If you read the Iranian PR about the silos they talk up how much of a technical accomplishment being able to build underground silos is. They compare it’s difficulty to building the rockets themselves.

A similar phenomenon can be seen with the Iranian space program. They have a whole bunch of different satellites ready to be launched over the next year, and have declared that they will be launching as fast as they can prep the launch pad, where before many of their satellite launches were delayed, often by six months or more. Again the administration is talking up how the satellites were scratch designed by Iranian universities and defense contractors.

My reading of this is that this is propaganda designed for domestic consumption. The Iranian government is publicizing orbits, satellite resolutions and lifespans. All of this is data that would be classified if it had any military value. In addition they’re talking up sending live animals into space, presumably to echo US and soviet accomplishments.