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On Tuesday, Iran announced that it has joined a handful of other countries that have hypersonic ballistic missiles. Currently, only the U.S., China, and Russia are known to also have hypersonic weapons.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attended an unveiling ceremony in Tehran for the "Fattah" hypersonic missile. The name literally translates to "conquer." At the unveiling, Raisi said, "Today we feel that the deterrent power has been formed."
"This power is an anchor of lasting security and peace for the regional countries," he added.
"We build missiles so that we do not suffer from aggression by enemies, and so that...enemies would not even think of an act of aggression against the Islamic Republic," Raisi continued. Meanwhile, Israel has issued numerous warnings that it reserves the 'right' to strike preemptively on Iran's purported nuclear program.
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"Iran's military, defense and missile power creates deterrence, of course, it creates deterrence not only from invasion but also from the thought of invasion," Raisi concluded.
During the unveiling, Gen. Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard's aerospace program, announced that the new hypersonic missile would "usher in a new generation of missiles in Iran."
According to Hajizadeh, the Fattah has a range of up to 870 miles and can reach speeds of up to Mach 15. The General also noted that "there exists no system that can rival or counter this missile."
Meanwhile, despite Iran releasing an official video that shows the missile in flight, many observers believe that the hypersonic missile is still in development and is not yet deployable as a weapon in Tehran's arsenal. It took Russia years test-firing its hypersonic missiles before they were ready for use and many of those tests failed.
Official video of the alleged hypersonic rocket was released by Tehran as part of the missile's unveiling, however, given that much of the video is comprised of computer-generated graphics, it has left many doubting that the Islamic Republic has actually achieved hypersonic capabilities.
Meanwhile, Gen. Hajizadeh continued to praise the work of Iran's development of the missile saying the country's work "will not end with the construction of this missile" and also that Tehran's military "will continue on this path so that no enemy even imagines attacking Iran."
Despite the debate as to whether or not the images in the videos are computer-generated or authentic, Israel continues to monitor the situation closely and to warn the West that it should be more forceful with Iran, and should target its ballistic missile program, not just Iranian nuclear sites.
The Iranian leaders also believe that "The Missing Imam" who died, in the 14th century if I recall correctly, will reappear and cause Islam to rule the world if the Iranians are able to cause enough people to die fast enough, because massive deaths are required to bring him back. So personally, being that nuts, I wouldn't bet on them having hypersonic missiles.