Iran’s ‘Hypersonic’ Missile Announced With Great Fanfare

Iran has announced that it has produced a “hypersonic” missile that can fly at a speed of up to ten times the speed of sound, much too fast, it claims, to be intercepted by Israel’s anti-missile systems, including the Iron Dome that has an interception rate of 96% against ballistic missiles. In Tehran, billboards have just been put up proclaiming, in Farsi and Hebrew, this great achievement of Iranian engineers. Yet there are reasons to doubt that this “achievement” in fact exists. Iran has a record of announcing great advances in weaponry that then never panned out. But let’s assume in this case they are telling the truth. What can Israel do? Well, Israeli scientists have already been hard at work on an anti-missile defense system that will be able to deal even with this hypersonic missile. It should be noted that just a month ago, Russia announced it was now going to use its new “unstoppable” hypersonic missile, the Kinzhal, against Ukraine. And so it did, but then the Ukrainians shot down six of those missiles in a single night. That ought to have given the braggart warriors in Tehran pause. More on the announcement in Tehran, and on the most impressive news from Israel’s Rafael Defense Systems, can be found here: “Iran’s supposedly unstoppable hypersonic missile – and an Israeli response,” Elder of Ziyon, June 16, 2023:

On June 6, Iran announced that it had developed a hypersonic missile capable of speeds up to Mach-15, called the Fattah.

It made quite clear that the main target of the missile is Israeli civilians.

Throughout Tehran, banners appeared with a mock-up of the weapon and the words “400 seconds to Tel Aviv” in Farsi and Hebrew….

While the news, if true, is troubling, the timing couldn’t have come at a better time for Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, who created Iron Dome and David’s Sling anti-missile systems. It announced this week it was building a defense for the hypersonic missiles that Iran claimed were impossible to defend against….

So whom do you believe? Iran, when it claims to have developed a hypersonic missile that Israel will never be able to shoot down, or Israel, when it claims to have developed a missile that will be able to do exactly that? A few weeks ago, Iran held a press conference to introduce the world to its “quantum processor,” which turned out to be some off-the-shelf thingamajig that can be bought at Amazon for $710.

The Iranians a few years ago announced that they had come up with a device that could detect someone infected with Covid-19 from a football field away. Then there was only silence, and nothing more was heard about this fantastic, though non-existent, achievement.

It was never mentioned again, for good reason – either because it could not work as claimed, or because it never existed in the first place, but was one more manifestation of the Iranian regime’s rich fantasy life. “Iran announces HUGE technical breakthroughs. Usually fictional, but HUGE!,” Elder of Ziyon, June 9, 2023:

Previously, Iran also announced they built a stealth fighter jet, the F-313, which couldn’t possibly fly. And also a home-built fighter aircraft that was a 1970s-era US-made F-5F Tiger with paint….

That stealth fighter jet was never shown in flight. And Western experts are unanimous that as described, it would not work. It was called the Quaher F-313, and photos of it had appeared before, in 2013, when the website War Is Boring pointed out that the jet was too small to carry its announced weapons payload or even fit a pilot. More on this nonexistent “stealth fighter jet” can be found here:

Writing for Vice’s Motherboard, journalist David Axe said the F-313 — which does not fly in the video — had its tire pressure stenciled on the outside of the plane and that it was way too low for a full-sized airplane weighed down with instruments and fuel.

The scientist says the tire pressure “takes away all doubt that it’s a fake.”

It was a fake, but the announcements about both the fighter jet and the stealth fighter jet in 2018 were intended to impress other nations, especially Israel, and, as well, the unhappy and restive Iranian people, who needed to be reassured: “See, we are on the cutting-edge of military technology, we can produce things that our arch-enemy Israel has been unable to manufacture. We are right up there with the U.S., China, and Russia.” And nothing more was heard about this home-grown “stealth fighter jet.” We still don’t know if any test flights were ever made. Some believe this “stealth fighter jet” was a “total fake” that, as a “stealth” plane, never existed.

Which brings us back to the “hypersonic missile” that those boastful Iranians have just announced. Given Iran’s history of making announcements about new weapons that turn out to be either comically exaggerated or false, we may well doubt the story. But even if it is true – and there are no videos of this missile in flight, or any mention of a test flight – there is Israel’s new anti-missile defense system, Sky Sonic, that is designed precisely to meet the challenge of these hypersonic missiles. Far from hiding it, Israel intends to put it on public view at the Paris Air Show. Whom do you believe? Iran, which has a long history of making claims that turned out to be false, or Israel, that has a long history of telling the truth? When has Israel ever failed to deliver on its promises about new weapons, both offensive and defensive? Why should we think that this time Iran is, for the first time, telling the truth about its advances in weaponry, and Israel, for the first time, is lying?