Iran unveils its first domestically-made hypersonic ballistic missile
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On Tuesday, the official IRNA news agency announced that Iran unveiled what officials called its first domestically-made hypersonic ballistic missile.
Pictures of the missile named Fattah complemented the report at a ceremony attended by President Ebrahim Rahisi and Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders.
The domestically-developed hypersonic missile "Fattah", #Iran IRGC's most recent achievement, was unveiled on Tuesday morning (June 6) in the presence of President Ebrahim Raisi. pic.twitter.com/wzwUTRR3ez
— IRNA News Agency (@IrnaEnglish) June 6, 2023
"The precision-guided Fattah hypersonic missile has a range of 1,400 km, and it is capable of penetrating all defense shields," Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guards' aerospace force, said at the ceremony, according to Iranian state media.
State TV added that Iran’s new missile can target "the enemy's advanced anti-missile systems and is a big generational leap in the field of missiles.”
"It can bypass the most advanced anti-ballistic missile systems of the United States and the Zionist regime, including Israel's Iron Dome," Iran's state TV said.
It also added that Fattah's top speed reached Mach 14 (15,000km/h).
Last month, Iran unveiled a new ballistic missile with a range of 1,242 miles (2,000 km) and a payload capacity of a ton (907 kg). The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later confirmed that the country would soon unveil a hypersonic missile.
In November last year, Hajizade claimed that the country had developed a hypersonic missile. Hajizadeh told an Iranian news agency in May that the missile had passed all its tests and would soon be unveiled.
The Islamic Republic is determined further to develop its defensive missile program despite Western opposition. However, it’s hard to tell how advanced the program is, as Western military analysts say Iran sometimes exaggerates its missile capabilities.
Hypersonic missiles can travel at speeds five times greater than sound (Mach 5) and have high maneuverability, making them harder to track by air defense systems. This makes them highly effective tools to take out air defenses during warfare, and over the past few years, they have rightly become the next frontier of air combat.
Some Western powers further fear that Iran may seek to develop an atomic bomb. The nation has, however, denied any such plans.
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