Fabian Hinz & Douglas Barrie
Tehran showed new UAVs and SAM systems that signal its desire for considerable capability improvements.
Amid Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, Hamas-backer Iran showcased a range of new or upgraded weapons in a development that arguably seeks to send a message to potential adversaries. The capabilities displayed were a rocket-powered ‘cruise missile’, surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, improved variants of direct-attack and precision-guided munitions as well as a previously unseen long-endurance uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV).
The weapons were presented to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Museum in Tehran on 19 November and highlighted the expansive nature of Iran’s weapons-development drive.
Speed ticket
Perhaps the most ambitious of these capabilities is the Fattah 2, a high-speed weapon concept. The IRGC displayed two mock-ups of the winged missile, with one featuring a first-stage booster derived from one of Iran’s many ballistic-missile designs, while an engineering mock-up showed the weapon’s rocket exhaust nozzle and two fuel tanks.
The Fattah 2 is reportedly capable of hypersonic speeds. A liquid-propelled winged missile in this class would notionally be capable of Mach 5-plus flight, but with a comparative short motor burn. During flight, the winged second stage that extends the range of the weapon is believed to separate from the booster in the exo-atmosphere. While Iran has not detailed the developmental status of the Fattah 2, the demands of its design, including the materials required to deal with aerodynamic heating as well as the challenges of control and guidance, suggest it is likely at an early stage.
The Fattah 2 dovetails with Tehran’s long-standing ambition to acquire higher-speed cruise weapons to complement its subsonic land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs). The Islamic Republic has elements of a ramjet-sustainer engine and has tried to acquire the Russian Zvezda-Strela Kh-31 (RS-AS-17 Krypton) rocket-/ramjet-powered supersonic air-to-surface missile. Iran is also believed to be building a wind tunnel capable of supporting high-speed aerodynamics research.
The fixed-wing variant of the Paveh subsonic LACM currently in Iranian service was also part of the 19 November display. The missile also has a saddle wing version where the wings are deployed immediately following launch. Recent footage of this variant shows what appears to be a radar altimeter on the underside of the nose section, indicating that the missile has a much lower altitude flight profile making it harder to intercept.
Increasingly uninhabited
The exhibition also featured several new UAV designs by the IRGC Aerospace Force’s Shahed Aviation Industries Research Centre, including the Shahed 139. Alluded to earlier this year, the Shahed 139, represents an improved version of the armed Shahed 129 medium-altitude long-endurance UAV, which has been serving as the IRGC’s main uncrewed combat asset and was deployed extensively in Syria. The Shahed 139 was displayed alongside a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and a satellite-communications system suggesting Iran wants to expand the mission set and operating envelope of the UAV.
While Iran is improving its capabilities in what it dubs the ‘Predator-class’ of UAVs with the Shahed 139, the Islamic Republic is also moving towards larger designs featuring turboprop propulsion. Unveiled in 2021 and displayed once again during the exhibition, the armed Shahed 149 Gaza has a reported maximum take-off weight of 3.5 tons and appears to be undergoing flight testing.
Iran also flagged its ambitions with respect to high-altitude long-endurance systems in the form of the newly unveiled Shahed 147, which has a wingspan of 26 metres (more than the US Predator but less than a RQ-4 Global Hawk) and a claimed service ceiling of 60,000 feet. The IRGC Aerospace Force commander described the Shahed 147 as a useful reconnaissance asset and claimed that the UAV’s ceiling was comparable to the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk. The displayed Shahed 147 featured an electro-optical and infrared imaging system as well as a previously shown SAR. The Shahed 147’s development status remains unclear.
The exhibition also featured several previously unseen air-to-surface guided-bombs alongside the UAVs.
Also on show was a jet-powered version of the Shahed 136 direct-attack munition, called the Shahed 238, first unveiled in a documentary a few weeks earlier. The Shahed 136 was shown with different guidance configurations, with one using exclusively the Global Navigation Satellite System and others using a nose-mounted electro-optical or imaging infrared sensor. At least one piston-engine delta-winged Shahed version in the exhibition appeared to be equipped with a nose-mounted seeker. Iran did not detail the reason for the seeker, though this capability could allow an operator to provide terminal guidance via datalink and thereby employ the system as a loitering munition. Using a direct line-of-sight data link would significantly limit the range of the weapon though. Another possibility, if less likely, is that an optical seeker might be used as part of a digital scene-matching navigation system to provide jam-resistant guidance.
SAM families
Iran showed the Dey 9 SAM system, first seen in 2021, during the exhibition with a larger variety of missiles. They included likely semi-active and perhaps active radar-guided medium-range missiles. Also on display were an infrared- or electro-optically guided weapon as well as a smaller (and therefore shorter-ranged) interceptor.
When the Dey 9 was first revealed, it consisted of two four-cannister launchers with each cannister able to house one of the larger missiles. The Dey 9 displayed on 19 November had six-cannister launchers in three rows of two. The SAM system, when armed with one of its larger missiles is believed to have an engagement range of 20 to 30 kilometres. The smallest interceptor displayed beside the new Dey 9 variant could be intended for point defence or countering UAVs at short range, but the IRGC did not release details such as many missiles can fit into each cannister.
Iran also displayed the Mehran, a long-range system with four launch canisters. The system reportedly has a range of up to 320km. The missile displayed with the Mehran had an aerodynamic configuration similar to the Taer-3 SAM.
No comments:
Post a Comment