"Fattah 2" is an updated and upgraded version of the hypersonic missile "Fattah 1" unveiled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards last June (social media)
"It can beat the most advanced air defense systems"
This is how Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi described the Fattah missile, after the Revolutionary Guards unveiled it last June in a solemn military ceremony as the first homemade hypersonic ballistic missile. The commanders of the Revolutionary Guards confirmed at the time that the new missile is capable of penetrating the Israeli air defense system "Iron Dome", and that they are currently working to increase the range of their hypersonic missiles to 2000,1 kilometers, which would put Israel in the crosshairs of this type of Iranian missile (2) (<>).
This revelation (3) came at a time of increasing tensions between Iran and the United States over Tehran's nuclear program, and the hypersonic "Fattah" missiles are just part of the arsenal of homemade ballistic missiles developed by the Iranian Guards over the past years, in clear defiance of the international sanctions imposed by the United States and its European allies on Iran, including the arms embargo that prevents Tehran from obtaining advanced weapons.
With this discovery, Iran became the first country in the Middle East to possess this technology, and the fourth country in the world in the list of countries that manufacture "hypersonic missiles", after Russia, the United States of America and China. On November 19, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unveiled a new class of hypersonic missiles, Fattah 2, which represented a potential enhancement of Iran's military capabilities vis-à-vis Israel in the midst of the war currently waged by the Zionist occupation on the Gaza Strip.
What are hypersonic rockets?
Hypersonic weapons is a term given to weapons whose speed exceeds 5 times the speed of sound, i.e. more than Mach 5 or more, and ultrasonic missile technology is also characterized by its ability to launch outside the atmosphere, and then return to it again, and then begin to maneuver and move in all directions to evade enemy defenses, which makes most of these missiles untraceable (4) (5).
The main advantage of hypersonic missiles is that there are no missile defense systems anywhere in the world that are sophisticated enough to deter such superior weapons, as most missile defense systems are designed to intercept conventional ballistic missiles, which take a fixed arc path towards the target, and thus make it easier for them to predict and intercept the missile's trajectory (6) (7).
High, hypersonic speeds are a challenge for conventional defense systems, which take longer to set off alarms and activate anti-missile systems. Not to mention the maneuverability of hypersonic missiles, they constantly change their trajectory moving in all directions, and the more irregular the flight path of the missile, the more difficult it is to intercept it by anti-missile systems (8).
What do we know about "Fattah 2"?
The Fattah-2 is an updated and upgraded version of the Fattah-1 hypersonic missile unveiled by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in June, but details of many of its capabilities remain undisclosed. This caused a great confusion (2) in determining the quality of the hypersonic missile "Fattah <>", as some local media described it as a "cruise missile", many Western sources said it was a "ballistic missile".
In 🇮🇷 IRGC-ASF classification:
– Fattah-1 is a hypersonic ballistic-missile (left)– Fattah-2 is a hypersonic cruise-missile (right)
➡️ Main difference: Fattah-1 engages later with the atmosphere, Fattah-2 sooner
More details in this short thread
(1/4) pic.twitter.com/t2mkdSlpJi
— Patarames (@Pataramesh) November 19, 2023
Intelligence analysts (1) believe that the "Fattah 2" is a ballistic missile, while the "Fattah <>" is a cruise missile, and cruise missiles differ from ballistic missiles - other than design - in a key matter is the flight path, the first follows a guided flight path at a relatively low altitude, which enables it to move around obstacles and terrain, while the second follows an arched path, ascending to a great height at first and then quickly descending towards the target.
The Fattah 2 missile most likely consists of two (<>) parts, a main engine and an ultrasonic glide vehicle (HGV) that separate from the missile itself, providing it with a greater ability to perform sharp maneuvers that make its trajectory difficult to predict, thus avoiding conventional missile defense systems and moving at supersonic speed towards the desired target. In addition, the missile can change the direction of the target frequently, making it difficult for missile defense systems to recognize it.
Iran has not yet disclosed any technical information regarding the new missile, but it is likely to have a greater range than the original Fattah missile, which has a range of up to 1400,2 kilometers. The Iranian Tasnim News Agency (5) indicated that the "Fattah 20" has a speed between Mach 6-24, depending on the design and the opinion of the designer company, and Mach is the unit of measurement of the speed of sound, and this is equal to between 2,1 and 12,<> km per hour. Military experts have indicated that the "Fattah <>" will be more suitable for a pre-emptive strike than the "Fattah <>", due to its ability to fly at low altitudes and follow an unpredictable path, which makes it able to face or exceed the middle of the enemy line (<>).
Conclusion:
Fattah-2 is superior in a scenario of a pre-emptive strike:
– Flying lower
– Flying less predictable/different direction
– Countering mid-course interceptors
Fattah-1:
– Maneuvers at higher G and velocities to better defeat terminal ABM systems
– Is more affordable pic.twitter.com/hxEDDYeaQs
— Patarames (@Pataramesh) November 19, 2023
Is it a game-changer?
The hypersonic arms race raises a lot of controversy in the world today, because it seems much easier to acquire them than to defend against them, no matter how technically superior the defending force, which applies to the Israeli occupation state, and even the United States itself (13). As for Israel, there are two basic (3) air defense systems, the first is the Iron Dome, which is designed to intercept short-range missiles, and the second is the arrow system "Arrow-2017", which has been in use at Israeli air bases since <>, and was developed with American support in cooperation with the American company "Boeing".
The Arrow-3 system is designed specifically to counter long-range missiles and intercept ballistic missiles outside the Earth's atmosphere, and contains a rocket launcher, launch control radar (FCR), and an early warning radar system to track long-range ballistic missiles, and therefore is a powerful air defense system to counter conventional ballistic missiles, but when confronting hypersonic missiles, it depends more on the speed of the missile and its maneuverability, which makes these missiles a real threat.
The Arrow-3 system in particular to counter long-range missiles and intercept ballistic missiles outside the Earth's atmosphere (Reuters)
The same applies to the US (2024) air defense system "THAAD", which is also designed to intercept conventional short and medium-range ballistic missiles, but not hypersonic missiles, and so far the United States of America is still unable to keep pace with the development in this type of weapons, and according to a report (<>) "Wall Street Journal" Most of the existing US projects to defend against hypersonic missiles are either under development or under test, which necessitated from General Glenn de Vanherk, commander of the command The U.S. Northern and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) stated during their <>th testimony before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee that the primary focus of the <> funding plan will focus on military research and development to combat hypersonic weapons.
General Vanherk asserts that the greatest danger facing the United States is its inability to change at the pace required by the changing strategic environment, noting that such capabilities of hypersonic weapons, from high maneuverability and low and unpredictable flight paths, make the tasks of American air defense systems difficult and limit their ability to protect the United States.
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Sources:
Source : Al Jazeera