Iran's IRGC Aerospace Force unveils hypersonic missile, says it can ‘evade all defense systems’

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force announced the release of a hypersonic missile at an event in Tehran on Tuesday morning.

The unveiling ceremony was attended by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, IRGC Commander Hossein Salami and several Iranian military chiefs.

The missile, called Fattah, was given its name by the Iranian leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

While IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Brig.- Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh announced last week that the missile had passed all tests, it has not yet provided any demonstration of the missile’s capability.

At the unveiling, the IRGC said the missile has a solid fuel spherical engine with a movable nozzle that allows the missile to move in all directions.

The group also announced that the missile’s top speed is Mach 13 [or about 9,600 mph].

“The missile has a high speed and can maneuver in the atmosphere and out of the atmosphere,” according to Hajizadeh, who claimed the missile can evade all air defense systems.

“This new missile passes through all missile shield systems, and I don't think there will be technology to fight it for decades to come. It targets enemy anti-missile systems and is a major generational leap in the missile field,” Hajizadeh stated in November, when the missile was first announced.

According to the Iranian officials, the hypersonic missile has a range of 1,400 km [approx 870 miles], which would enable it to reach Israel.

Following the missile’s announcement last fall, the Iranian Sobh-e-Sadegh newspaper published an article which warned that an Iranian hypersonic missile could hit Israel within 400 seconds.

The missile is allegedly able to perform evasive maneuvers outside of the earth’s atmosphere, allowing it to evade air defense systems, such as Israel’s David’s Sling missile defense system.

Iranian newspaper Donyaye eqtesad [Farsi] wrote about the missile on Tuesday morning and posted an update later in the day with the headline “Israel Fears New Missile Defense Force,”

In the article, which presents a screenshot of The Jerusalem Post’s website, the Farsi news outlet bragged about the number of Iranian missiles in Lebanon, claiming there were “150,000 Iranian missiles aimed at Israel in Lebanon!”

Hypersonic missiles, considered the next revolutionary technology on the battlefield, have not yet been demonstrated in such a way as to prove such claims.

While Russia claimed its hypersonic missiles were unstoppable, last month, reports from Ukraine claim to have shot down several of them using U.S. Patriot missile defense systems.

The U.S. military is also in the process of developing its own hypersonic missile system, but it is reportedly not yet ready for deployment.