Iran has developed a hypersonic missile capable of penetrating all defense systems, General Amirali Hajizadeh, the commander of its Revolutionary Guards aerospace unit, claimed on Thursday.Hypersonic missiles, like traditional ballistic missiles which can deliver nuclear weapons, can fly more than five times the speed of sound.“This hypersonic ballistic missile was developed to counter air defense shields,” Hajizadeh said, quoted by Iran’s Fars news agency.“It will be able to breach all the systems of anti-missile defense,” said the general, adding that he believed it would take decades before a system capable of intercepting it is developed.“This missile, which targets enemy anti-missile systems, represents a great generational leap in the field of missiles.”
Iran was not known to be a leader in hypersonic missile technology, so this is almost certainly false. However, it indicates that this is what they want to do, and they do have expertise in missile tech altogether, so the threat needs to be taken seriously, in the coming years. Also, it is possible that Russia is sharing hypersonic tech with Iran.
And the threat is not only to Israel. An Iranian hypersonic missile, potentially equipped with nuclear warheads, threatens the entire world.
The US has been working on hypersonic missile defense for a while and does not have anything yet. It is a complex problem that requires multiple components from satellite to ships at sea. This video describes what the US is working on.
The US is not concentrating on using lasers for this, although they say they are assessing them as part of a multi-layered approach. I imagine that lasers would be difficult to use over large distances.
|
Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. Read all about it here! |
|
