(RightWing.org) – The Islamic Republic of Iran is considered one of, if not the, biggest state sponsors of terrorism in the world. Therefore, any military advancements put forward by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are worthy of attention, and a new missile system is no exception.
This is especially relevant now that their proxy terrorist group Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel where they butchered and kidnapped civilians, including women and children from Gaza on October 7; soon thereafter, another Iranian-backed group, Hezbollah, joined in the war from their base in Lebanon. Tehran has made a big show of telling the world about a new weapon that, if true, could be a game changer in the Middle East.
The Iranians recently released a video of their Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei touring the IRGC Aerospace Force where they proudly displayed the Fattah-2 hypersonic missile for him. This comes after they told the world about the original Fattah in June of this year.
Iran unveil new Fattah-2 hypersonic missile pic.twitter.com/8m7N4GXM1k
— AoR News 🇵🇸🇱🇧🇸🇾🇮🇶🇮🇷🇾🇪 (@AoR3138) November 19, 2023
The claim was made at the time of the first public reveal that the weapon could reach speeds of Mach 15 (exceeding the lower limit defining hypersonic of Mach 5 by a factor of three). In scientific terms, Mach is a variable that takes in several different factors, but for general purposes, it reflects the speed of sound at typical sea level conditions, ~760 mph (~1,200 km/h). So, by saying Mach 15, they claim that it has a ground speed of roughly 11,000 mph (18,500 km/h).
Qatar is located on the Arabian Peninsula and it is an economic and political ally to Iran. Its state-run media outlet Al Jazeera published a story about the Fattah missile in June that claimed it had a range of 870 miles (1,400 km). Given that a straight line distance from Western Iran to Jerusalem is slightly less than 700 miles, if the claims are anywhere near accurate, they could be a threat to the Jewish nation.
The Patriot surface-to-air missile (SAM) defense system developed by the United States is widely used in Israel and across the region, generally for use against ballistic rockets. However, because hypersonic glide missiles (HGMs) like the Fattah use jet nozzles that make them highly maneuverable along all axes of flight, experts are not sure how effective they would be.
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