Iran now has in its arsenal a cruise missile with a range of 1,650 km (1,025 miles), a top military commander has claimed. Late last year, Tehran announced it had developed a ballistic missile capable of traveling at hypersonic speeds.
“Our cruise missile with a range of 1,650 km has been added to the missile arsenal of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards aerospace force, said on Iranian state TV on Friday.
The broadcast also carried footage purportedly depicting the new Paveh missile.
In November last year, US Defense Department Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh expressed skepticism over whether Iran had succeeded in developing a hypersonic missile.
Back then, Hajizadeh claimed that the missile was capable of penetrating enemy anti-missile defenses and traveling both inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
At present, only a handful of nations, such as the US, China and Russia have the necessary technology to build such advanced rockets.
Iran has been actively developing its missile capabilities since the 1980s. While the US and some European nations have repeatedly voiced concern over the Islamic Republic’s growing military capabilities, with Washington imposing sanctions, Tehran insists its missile program is defensive in nature and is meant as a deterrent against the US and its regional allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.