Tehran boasts of hypersonic missile that can beat Iron Dome

Iran’s military leaders believe precision-guided Fattah could defeat the Jewish state’s Iron Dome missile defence system.

Amirali Hajizadeh unveils the Fattah hypersonic missile in Tehran. Picture: AFP

Iran has revealed what it says is a hypersonic missile, part of an ­escalation of threats directed at Israel and a sign of the military pressure it is under from the so-called Zionist entity.

The Islamic republic’s military leaders have been claiming for months that they have developed a medium-range ballistic missile as well as a hypersonic missile that can reach at least five times the speed of sound.

They believe a hypersonic missile could defeat Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defence system, a prototype that has fended off the less advanced rockets of Palestinian militant groups attacking ­Israel from Gaza and south ­Lebanon.

“The precision-guided Fattah (Conqueror) hypersonic missile has a range of 1400km and it is capable of penetrating all defence shields,” Amirali Hajizadeh, of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division, said. State television said the missile could outwit American as well as Israeli defences and had a maximum velocity of 15 times the speed of sound.

Iran regularly upgrades its missiles, on which it is increasingly dependent for defensive and offensive capabilities. It inherited some United States and Soviet-era Russian jets from the time of the Shah, who was overthrown in 1979, but has largely been able neither to maintain nor replace them.

Its latest ballistic missile, the Khorramshahr-4, was tested two weeks ago. It had a stated range of 1,242 miles: a standard for Iran because it brings Israel within reach but not western Europe, which it is generally keen not to antagonise. Tel Aviv would also be in range of the latest missile if fired from western Iran and assuming the claims about its capabilities are accurate.

Given that they have not been tested in combat or in front of a western audience, experts say it is hard to verify Iran’s claims. There is no doubt that some of its ­advanced guided missiles represent a threat, however – at least to its close neighbours.

A drone and missile attack in 2019 hit Saudi oil facilities with an accuracy that alarmed Riyadh and Western observers, punching neat holes in storage tanks. There are different claims about the ­location of the launchpad, but it was at least 650km away.

The announcement of the hypersonic missile, whose test-flight video comprises mostly computer-generated imagery, may be a political statement related to the ever-closer relationship between Tehran and Moscow.

Russia remains the only country to have deployed a hypersonic missile, the Kinzhal, which it has used several times during the war in Ukraine. Kyiv claimed to have shot down all six Kinzhal missiles fired at Ukrainian targets on May 16, although one may have got through and damaged a Patriot anti-missile defence battery on the ground.

Iran wants greater Russian backing in its proxy war with ­Israel in Syria. Israel has been bombing sites used by Iran and its militia allies such as Hezbollah for years, with little response from the Assad regime or its Russian backers.

Iran does not want to escalate directly so is hoping that Russia, which has good relations with ­Israel, will apply diplomatic pressure, while the Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah intensify their threats of a direct missile ­response. Iran’s claims about the capabilities of the Fattah missile are difficult to verify

THE TIMES