Islam Times - Iran’s Hypersonic Missile Passes Tests, To Be Unveiled Soon: IRGC

Islam Times - Iran will soon unveil its domestically-manufactured hypersonic ballistic missile, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard [IRG] Aerospace Division Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said, calling the development a “significant generational leap” in the field of missiles.

“The hypersonic missile has completed its tests and will be unveiled soon,” General Hajizadeh announced on Monday.

This missile has an extremely high speed, approximately 12 to 13 Mach, and can maneuver both within and outside the Earth's atmosphere, he added.

"Only one missile is fired but when it reaches its target, it hits as many as 80 targets at once. It means that, if we fire 80 missiles of this variant, as many as 8,000 targets are hit in the enemy's lands," Hajizadeh said about the precision-guided Khorramshahr-4 missile.

The Iranian defense ministry unveiled the latest ballistic missile dubbed "Khorramshahr-4 long-range strategic missile" in a ceremony on Thursday morning in the presence of the defense minister on the anniversary of Liberation of Khorramshahr city from Western-backed Saddam Ba'athist regime in 1982.

Other Iranian officials said the new missile is equipped with a cyber defense system to resist and neutralize enemy cyber attacks that make it impossible to intercept.

The Khorramshahr missile is one of the most advanced missiles designed by the experts of the Aerospace Organization of defense ministry, which has a range of 2,000 km and is equipped with a high-explosive warhead weighing 1,500 kg.

To create tactical capabilities, this missile is equipped with one of the most advanced liquid fuel engines and the engine is placed in the fuel tank, which has reduced the length of the missile to about 13 meters.

Among the missile’s other features, Hajizadeh said, is its ability to bypass all missile defense systems.

Hypersonic missiles can fly at speeds at least five times faster than the speed of sound. Their sheer speed and intricate trajectories make their interception almost impossible.

The announcement comes days after Iran unveiled a new ballistic missile, called Kheibar, capable of reaching a range of 2,000 kilometers and carrying a warhead weighing up to 1.5 metric tons.

Following the test-launch on Thursday, the United States claimed that Iran’s missile program posed a “serious threat."

The Islamic Republic has long asserted that its missile program is solely for defense purposes while insisting that the program is not up for negotiations.