17/06/2025
Recent days have demonstrated the capabilities of two truly 21st century weapons in competition in the skies above Israel. The ability of the so called “Iron Dome” defence system is an impressive spectacle to behold as swarms of interceptors zig-zag to effectively target volleys conventional ballistic missiles. However, despite this layered system being quite capable to prevent drones and medium-range ballistic missiles such as the Emad and Ghadr-1, it seem somewhat less potent at preventing strikes by Iran's first hypersonic Fattah-1.
Contemporary conflicts are continuously providing real-world testing of evolutionary weapons and showing that previous strategic assumptions relating to security procurement are flawed. Heavy investment in certain systems such as comprehensive air defence can be rendered useless in the face of generational shifts in technological superiority.
This comes as Trump's regime plans a “golden dome” system for the US while still lagging behind many of it's competitors in the development of true a hypersonic missile system. With China, Russia and Iran all able to deploy hypersonic projectiles, and Iran now joins Russia in demonstrating battlefield strikes. The US may have to rely on “allied” partners such as the UK, Japan, South Korea and even Australia, to further develop hypersonic technology to regain the technological edge in this arena.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-16/iran-weapons-ballistic-missiles-isreal-strikes-nuclear/105418388
https://thebulletin.org/2024/03/hypersonic-weapons-are-mediocre-its-time-to-stop-wasting-money-on-them/
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/which-countries-have-hypersonic-missiles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAhYQmkY7XA
Iran unleashes its next-generation Fattah-1 hypersonic missiles, allegedly targeting and completely destroying Israel’s Haifa oil refinery. This strike marks...