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🇲🇽 Mexico /Conflict & Security

Russia secretly helped Iran develop hypersonic cruise missiles, Financial Times reports

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Documents & data Ongoing story
  • The Financial Times reported that Russia has assisted Iran’s secret C430L program to develop hypersonic cruise missiles since 2023.
  • The investigation cited leaked Russian correspondence, travel records and analysis of military patents, and said Russian missile specialists participated.
  • Experts said the technology could support anti-ship and land-attack missiles, but there is no evidence Iran has deployed a Russian-assisted hypersonic cruise missile.

Russia has secretly helped Iran develop a new class of hypersonic cruise missile, according to an investigation by the Financial Times. The program, code-named C430L, began in 2023 and continued during the war between the United States and Israel against Iran.

The investigation said some of Russia’s most experienced missile specialists took part in the effort. It drew on leaked Russian correspondence, travel records and an analysis of military patents.

Highly sensitive military technology of major strategic significance that the Iranians have wanted to acquire for decades.

— Fabian HinzThe Conflict Armament Research analyst described the technology Russia was allegedly transferring to Iran.

The central goal of C430L is reportedly to help Iran develop a scramjet propulsion system. Such an engine allows a cruise missile to fly at several times the speed of sound. Missile and military experts told the Financial Times that the technology was almost certainly intended for anti-ship and land-attack missiles.

A program like this would require political authorization from Russia’s highest levels.

— Fabian HinzHinz assessed the level of Russian approval that the reported missile program would require.

Fabian Hinz, an Iranian missile expert and senior analyst at the United Kingdom-based Conflict Armament Research, said Russia was transferring “highly sensitive military technology of major strategic significance that the Iranians have wanted to acquire for decades.” He added that “a program like this would require political authorization from Russia’s highest levels.”

There is currently no evidence that Iran has deployed a hypersonic cruise missile developed with Russian assistance. Jim Lamson, a former CIA military analyst specializing in Iran who now works at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said the system could give Iran “a qualitatively new strategic weapons system that could pose a threat to U.S. Navy ships.” The report described increasingly close cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, including Iran’s supply of Shahed attack drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

A qualitatively new strategic weapons system that could pose a threat to U.S. Navy ships.

— Jim LamsonThe former CIA military analyst described the potential military effect of the reported technology.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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