Iranian Supreme Leader visits air force exhibition
Iran has ramped up once more its threat to Israel as it unveiled a new hypersonic missile.
The Fattah-2 rocket, which means “conqueror” in Persian, is an updated version of the Fattah missile announced in June.
The main improvement in the new weapon is its ability to evade anti-aircraft fire, Iran claimed.
Tehran said the Fattah-2 can do so thanks to its hypersonic glide vehicle, which detaches from the missile itself and can make sharp manoeuvres to dodge conventional missile defences while travelling to its target.
Fattah-2 can, the theocratic state added, travel 15 times faster than the speed of sound and defeat Israeli air defences.
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In a clip released by the Iranian news channel Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) on November 19, the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was filmed visiting the IRGC Aerospace Force Exhibition, where a Fattah-2 rocket was positioned front and centre.
In the TV report, General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, told the Ayatollah the “phenomenal” steel weapon “has a range of 1800 kilometres”.
The previous generation of Fattah was said to have a range of 1400 kilometres.
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The General also said: “The first-stage engine takes it outside of the atmosphere. This part is already liquid-fueled and is manoeuvrable. From there, it continues to manoeuvre at low altitude.”
Neither Israel nor the US have yet commented on the claims made by Iran on its new weapon, and the Pentagon had previously expressed scepticism at Iran’s hypersonic missile claims.
Nevertheless, Bradley Bowman, senior director at the Foundation for Dence of Democracies (FDD), believes the Iranian weapon programmes are “not simply for show”.
He told the Telegraph: “Tehran’s claims about new capabilities should be taken with a heavy grain of salt, but it would be a mistake to shrug at Iran’s growing missile capabilities. The Islamic Republic of Iran uses ballistic missiles to attack its neighbours and US troops while proliferating some missiles or related technologies to Tehran’s terror proxies.”
Iran has been a major supplier of weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah, both proscribed terror groups in the UK who are at war with Israel. It also backs Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Since the new war between Israel and Hamas erupted, Iran has been launching threats to Tel Aviv of a wider regional conflict.
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