Iran on Wednesday announced that it has the technology to build supersonic cruise missiles, leading to some wondering if Israel, and even some US Middle East interests, might now be in greater danger.
Before dissecting what exactly the Islamic Republic really presented and how game-changing or not it is, the first thing we need to notice is that the key phrase here is “cruise missile” as opposed to “supersonic.”
Supersonic is about reaching mach one, something a large number of missiles have been able to do for many decades.
In terms of speech, supersonic is not all that special, and the new goal in threatening adversaries with speed is “hypersonic,” or reaching above mach five.
The cruise missile part, combined with supersonic speed is what is more threatening.
Since the 1990s, Iran has had ballistic missiles which could strike Israel, its Sunni Middle Eastern rivals, and parts of Eastern Europe.
Because of that, Israel has worked hard to develop anti-ballistic missile air defense systems, most prominently the series of Arrow defense systems, the latest of which is the Arrow 3.
Source : jpost