IRGC Navy Gets Ultra-Long-Range Cruise Missile Superior to Tomahawk

[Muhammed45]

IRGC Navy Gets Ultra-Long-Range Cruise Missile Superior to Tomahawk​

34 minutes ago

© Photo : Twitter / @GreaterIran92

Iran’s defense sector has made a series of dramatic advances over the years in areas ranging from missile and drone systems to radar and defense electronics, owing its successes to timely investments, a ruthless battle against corruption, and decades of restrictions on the purchase of advanced armaments from traditional Western arms suppliers.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy has received a new class of ship-borne ultra-long-range cruise missiles, and has established control over the Persian Gulf from the air, at sea, and from beneath the sea surface, IRGC Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri has announced.
“The movement of the enemy’s vessels in the Persian Gulf is under constant surveillance by the IRGC Navy,” the rear admiral said, speaking to reporters in the Iranian port city of Bushehr on Friday.
Pointing to the advanced capabilities of Iran’s defense industry, and to the “great progress” made by the IRGC and the regular Navy and Army, Tangsiri said that “with such equipment and capable forces, the preparedness level of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran is increasing day by day.”
In an interview with local media published Saturday, the commander revealed that multiple ships of the IRGC Navy have received new Qadr-474 cruise missiles with a 2,000 km range. These include the Shahid Mahdavi ocean-going warship, and Shahid Soleimani-class warships – a new generation of catamaran-style missile corvettes unveiled by Iran last year.
If the missile’s range characteristics can be independently confirmed, it would make the Iranian missile superior in range to most variants of the Tomahawk – a US subsonic anti-ship and land attack cruise missile that has long been the mainstay of the US Navy. Tomahawks have a range between 460 km (anti-ship) and 1,700 km (land attack), with only the nuclear and ground-launched variants capable of flying distances beyond that – up to 2,500 km. They are armed with either a 450 kg conventional warhead, or a nuclear W80 warhead with a yield of between 5 and 150 kilotons.
Tangsiri did not provide any further information about the Qadr-474’s characteristics, but did offer details on the IRGC Navy’s fielding of a separate coastal defense cruise missile known as the Abu Mahdi. The missile, named in honor of late Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis – who was slain in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020 alongside IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani, has a range of up to 750 km, and can alter its destination mid-flight. It is said to be capable of ascending to trajectories high enough for it to be stationed behind mountainous ground cover and launched at targets at sea.
According to Tangsiri, all of Iran’s new advanced long-range missiles feature the same guidance system, making it possible for them to act in concert with one another. “Of course, the seeker and detection heads of these missiles differ and we have three types of seeker: IR, radar and TV. These missiles have a dual guidance system – meaning if one is disrupted by electronic warfare, the missile will hit its target using the second seeker, which is a new feature,” he said.
Iran has made dramatic advancements in the fields of naval and electronic warfare in recent years. Last month, Iranian Navy commander Admiral Shahram Irani reported that a Fateh-class submarine had detected an American ballistic missile submarine trying to sneak through the Strait of Hormuz submerged and forced it to surface.
Also in April, Amir Rastegari, the chief of Iran Electronics Industries, revealed that Iranian engineers had figured out how to distinguish the radar signature of individual F-35 fighter jets, and tested new electronic warfare means against real-world adversaries.
Facing decades of sanctions and restrictions on weapons imports, Iran has created one of the most advanced indigenous defense industrial bases in the world, producing everything from ballistic and cruise missiles to unmanned aerial vehicles and indigenous long-range radar. In a recent "Critical Technology Tracker," the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank ranked the Islamic Republic ninth among the world’s top 10 scientific and technical powers, including a top five ranking in six of 44 key technologies, including aircraft engines, biofuels, and smart materials.

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