What is Fattah 2?

About Fattah-2:

• Fattah, which means conqueror in Farsi, is a hypersonic ballistic missile.
• It was developed by Iran. It is a new version of its first domestically made hypersonic ballistic missile named ‘Fattah’.
• Features:
  • It is equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) warhead that can manoeuvre and glide at hypersonic speed.
  • It uses a liquid-fuel rocket propellant. The liquid fuel engine has the ability to adjust the thrust force.
  • The precision-guided two-stage missile can hit targets within a range of 1500 kilometres with a velocity of Mach 15 (fifteen times the speed of sound, i.e 18522 km/hr).
  • Measuring 12 meters in length, it can carry 200 kilograms of explosives.
  • It is capable of significant trajectory changes during flight to evade defence systems.
  • While the missile can accelerate outside the Earth's atmosphere, its aerodynamic control surfaces allow for steering within the atmosphere.

Q1: What are Ballistic Missiles?

Ballistic missiles are powered initially by a rocket or series of rockets in stages, but then follow an unpowered trajectory that arches upwards before descending to reach its intended target. Ballistic missiles can carry either nuclear or conventional warheads.

Source: Fattah-2: How Iran used hypersonic missile to pierce Israel's air defence