Tehran, Iran – Iran has unveiled an upgraded version of its hypersonic missile in a military exhibition for the country’s supreme leader.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday visited a university run by the aerospace division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran, where a more advanced version of the Fattah hypersonic missile was put on display along with an array of arms, including the Iranian-made Gaza drone.

A new version of the Shahed series of unmanned aerial vehicles and an upgraded version of the 9-Dey missile defence system, capable of launching short to medium-range projectiles, were also unveiled.

The IRGC in addition displayed a new missile defence system called Mehran, which is said to employ solid-fuel missiles.

Iran had first unveiled the missile in June, joining a small club of countries, including China and Russia, which have weapons capable of travelling long distances with strong maneuverability.

The Iranian state media said the Fattah II missile is a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), a projectile that glides to its target after the initial launch, offering substantially more maneuverability compared to a ballistic warhead travelling in a more predictable arc pattern.

No more information was provided on the upgraded version on Sunday, but Iran had said Fattah is capable of moving at a speed of up to Mach 15 (5.1 km or 3.2 miles per second) with a range of 1,400km (870 miles).

IRGC officials had said in June that the elite force could look to improve its range of hypersonics to 2,000km (1,242 miles), which would effectively cover the distance to Iran’s regional archenemy, Israel.

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