Russia has been secretly helping Iran develop advanced supersonic cruise missiles capable of threatening U.S. aircraft carriers and other warships in the Middle East, the Financial Times reported. The covert, multiyear program, code-named C430L, began in 2023 and continued during Iran’s war with the United States and Israel, according to an FT investigation based on leaked Russian correspondence, travel records, and military patents.
The program enlisted experienced Russian missile engineers to help Tehran develop ramjet propulsion technology, which allows cruise missiles to sustain speeds several times the speed of sound while flying at relatively low altitudes. Military experts told the FT that the technology is almost certainly intended for anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles. Such weapons would give U.S. and allied defenses less time to detect and intercept an incoming attack. “This is the transfer of a highly strategically sensitive military technology from Russia that the Iranians have wanted to acquire for decades,” Fabian Hinz, a senior analyst with the weapons-tracing group Conflict Armament Research, told the FT.
