The programme, codenamed C430L, reportedly involves the ‘transfer of a highly strategically sensitive military technology from Russia that the Iranians have wanted to acquire for decades’
Russia has been covertly helping Iran develop advanced supersonic cruise missiles, according to reports.
According to an investigation by the Financial Times, the assistance by Russia started in 2023 and has continued into the US war on Iran.
The US and Iran have been at war since February 28 when joint US-Israeli forces carried out strikes on several key Iranian sites. Iran retaliated by striking sites across the Middle East and closing the Strait of Hormuz waterway.
The programme, codenamed C430L, has used some of Russia’s most experienced missile specialists to help the Middle Eastern nation develop a new class of weapon. It is being carried out via Russian correspondence, travel records and analysis of military patents.
Fabian Hinz, an expert on Iranian missiles and senior analyst with Conflict Armament Research, a UK-based weapons-tracing organisation, said: “This is the transfer of a highly strategically sensitive military technology from Russia that the Iranians have wanted to acquire for decades.
“A programme like this would require political clearance from the very top in Russia.”
Weapons such as these would pose a threat to US warships in the region and could add a new element to the months-long conflict.
The main purpose of the programme is to assist Iran to develop a ramjet propulsion system, an engine that allows a cruise missile to sustain flight at several times the speed of sound.
Supersonic cruise missiles shorten the time available for air and missile defences to detect and engage them and would help Iran in the Gulf where the US operates advanced defensive systems.
“For the Iranians, this would give them a qualitatively new strategic weapon system that could threaten US Navy vessels,” said Jim Lamson, a former Iran-focused military analyst with the CIA now at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
Iran has built and flight-tested the ramjet propulsion system. There is no evidence that a Russian-assisted supersonic cruise missile have been deployed yet.
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