Iran on Tuesday unveiled what local officials described as its first self-made hypersonic ballistic missile. The information and images of the missile were revealed by the country’s official news agency, IRNA.
The announcement was attended by Iranian President Ebrahim Rahisi and commanders of Iran’s Elite Revolutionary Guards Corps. The missile was named Fattah.
“The Fattah precision-guided hypersonic missile has a range of 1,400 km and is capable of penetrating all defense shields,” said Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace force.
Hypersonic missiles can fly at least five times faster than the speed of sound, which makes them more difficult to intercept. Last year, Tehran already claimed to have built a hypersonic ballistic missile that could maneuver in and out of the atmosphere.
Iranian state TV said the Fattah missile could hit “the enemy’s most advanced anti-missile systems and is a great generational leap in the field of missiles”.
It would be able to “bypass the most advanced anti-ballistic missile systems of the United States and the ‘Zionist regime'”, in reference to Israel’s Iron Dome, completed the announcement. The state company also stated that the Fattah reached maximum speed levels of Mach 14 (15,000 km/h).
Despite US and European opposition, Iran has declared that it will further develop its defensive missile program. However, Western military analysts say the Tehran regime often exaggerates its defense capabilities.
Concerns over Iran’s ballistic missiles contributed to then-US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the country’s nuclear pact in 2018. The pact between Iran, the US and six other world powers had been signed in 2015.
With the decision, Trump reimposed US sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to restart its nuclear project and revived American, European and Israeli fears that it is developing an atomic bomb.
Indirect negotiations between Tehran and the government of US President Joe Biden to resume the nuclear deal have been stalled since September last year. Israel, which the Islamic republic refuses to recognize, opposes efforts by world powers to revive the nuclear deal with Tehran and has long threatened military action if diplomacy fails.
“I hear our enemies bragging about weapons they are developing,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday. “For any such development, we have an even better response – be it on land, in the air or in the maritime arena, including defensive and offensive means,” he said.
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