How Good is the Shahab (No’dong) Missile?
“Iran’s February 4th launch of a Shahab-3 just keeps on getting more and more interesting; that is if you are interested in just how good of a missile the Shahab/No’dong is. Video from Iran’s television show that there is a failure of the missile’s thrust vector control system nineteen seconds into its powered flight. At that point, there is a brief flaring at the very end of the missile and an object is seen flying off for several seconds, until it leaves the video’s frame as the camera continues to follow the missile. Tellingly, it doesn’t just drop off the missile but is given quite a transverse boost.
What is happening? The most likely explanation is that a part of one of the graphite jet vanes, little fins that are stuck into the exhaust just outside the nozzle and are used to steer the missile both in its pitch program and to correct for unwanted deviations in its trajectory. Jet vanes must be manufactured from very hard and pure graphite otherwise it is subject to being “eaten” away by the corrosive effects of the exhaust. Nineteen seconds is also about the time that a No’dong missile might be just starting its pitch program. (As I watch the video, it appears to me that the Shahab-3 has just started its pitch-over program, though why a sounding rocket needs to pitch over is beyond me. But then again, I don’t understand why Iran would use a nosecone for scientific purposes that looks exactly like the combat warhead.)”