DUBAI/WASHINGTON: Iran presented what officials described as its first domestically made hypersonic ballistic missile on Tuesday, the official IRNA news agency reported, an announcement likely to heighten Western concerns about Tehran’s missile capabilities.
Iranian state media published pictures of the missile named Fattah at a ceremony attended by President Ebrahim Rahisi and commanders of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps.
“The precision-guided Fattah hypersonic missile has a range of 1,400 km and it is capable of penetrating all defence shields,” Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guards’ aerospace force, was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.
Hypersonic missiles can fly at least five times faster than the speed of sound and on a complex trajectory, which makes them difficult to intercept. Last year, the Islamic Republic said it had built a hypersonic ballistic missile which can manoeuvre in and out of the atmosphere. State TV said Iran’s Fattah missile can target “the enemy’s advanced anti-missile systems and is a big generational leap in the field of missiles”.
US sanctions Chinese firms aiding Iran’s missile programme
“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.
Fattah’s top speed reached mach 14 levels (15,000km/h), it added.
Despite US and European opposition, the Islamic Republic has said it will further develop its defensive missile programme. However, Western military analysts say Iran sometimes exaggerates its missile capabilities.
‘Regional stability’
The United States placed sanctions on Tuesday on several Chinese and Hong Kong firms it said were supplying Iran’s ballistic missile programme.
The US Treasury said the Chinese companies shipped centrifuges for producing fuels, non-ferrous metals with potential military use, electronics and gyroscopes to already-sanctioned Iranian government bodies and private companies closely involved in building the missiles.
Washington is concerned that Iran plans to develop nuclear weapons that could be loaded on ballistic missiles to menace Israel and other countries.
The companies include Beijing Shiny Nights Technology Development, Qingdao Zhongrongtong Trade Development, Hong Kong Ke.Do International Trade Co, Lingoe Process Engineering Limited and Zhejiang Qingji Ind. Co.
The US Treasury also placed sanctions on Iran’s defence attache in Beijing, Davoud Damghani, saying he coordinated purchasing of Chinese supplies for Iran’s defence industry.
Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2023