Daniel Wolfram
Iran has called for help from a European ally to combat the US and Israel during the ongoing war.
Leaked travel records, internal correspondence, and military patents reveal a secret defense partnership between Russia and Iran.
The work started in 2023 and has continued, even as open conflict erupted across the Middle East.
Russia is helping Iran create supersonic weapons
Under the codename C430L, top Russian missile engineers are actively training their Iranian counterparts. The goal is a ramjet engine. This will ultimately allow a cruise missile to maintain flight at the speed of sound multiple times over.
Fabian Hinz, an expert on Iranian missiles and senior analyst with UK-based Conflict Armament Research, explained the scale of the transfer. “This is the transfer of a highly strategically sensitive military technology from Russia that the Iranians have wanted to acquire for decades,” Hinz said.
He stressed that an agreement of this magnitude could not happen without top political approval. “A program like this would require political clearance from the very top in Russia.”
Threat on the water
According to a detailed report by the Financial Times, supersonic missiles significantly reduce the time defensive radar systems are able to detect incoming threats. That creates a serious hazard for US warships and regional allies operating in the Gulf during the ongoing war with Iran.
Former CIA military analyst Jim Lamson, who now works at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, highlighted the strategic threat to American naval power. “For the Iranians, this would give them a qualitatively new strategic weapon system that could threaten US Navy vessels,” Lamson noted.
While Iranian forces have successfully flight-tested the ramjet propulsion unit, the weapon system is not yet fully up to speed. Experts say no supersonic missiles have been deployed so far in the war.
