Hypersonic missile: The chief diplomat of the Global South

With thanks to our dear friend, Quantum Bird

Following a direct order from the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the aerospace forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked Israel with hundreds of missiles, both conventional and hypersonic. The full list of targets has not yet been released, but Iranian officials mentioned the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency, the Nevatim air base, which houses F-35 fighter jets, and the Hatzerim base, which was used in the operation to assassinate Hassam Nasrallah. Other targets hit include strategic radar stations, the centers storing tanks and personnel transport vehicles, and the center that housed Israeli regime forces participating in massacres against Palestinians in Gaza.

The IRGC statement mentions that more than 90% of the missiles successfully hit their targets. In fact, the collapse of the Israeli anti-aircraft defense is easily perceptible in the videos of the attack circulating on the internet. It is also reported that, differently from April, during the organization of the retaliation for the Israeli attack on the embassy in Damascus, this time around no prior warning was actually given to the US or Israel. The missiles took an average of just 15 minutes to reach its targets, traveling from various locations in Iran from which they were launched.

With this attack, Iran not only re-established the deterrence equation with Israel, but engaged the US directly. The message is clear: if we can easily hit Israel in 15 minutes or less with the most modest ballistic missiles in our arsenal and a few hypersonics, what do you think we’re going to do with your bases and other assets in the region?

This is the essence of hypersonic diplomacy in the Global South. Better to get used to it. Before Iran, only Russia, China and India mastered the technology to manufacture operational hypersonic missiles, with North Korea and Yemen joining the club a bit later.

And what about Israel’s possible reactions? Mike Tyson’s famous aphorism applies:

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”.

I venture to write that the Zionist entity will not do anything effective against Iran and will probably back down gradually – to save its face — from its plans to invade Lebanon. There is no way to confront Hezbollah, Iran and the rest of the Axis of Resistance without involving the US in a regional war that will lead to the total collapse of its posture in Southwest Asia. If Zionists are more cowardly than crazy, they will probably revert to their preferred style of warfare, and the only one they know how to fight: killing defenseless women and children, firing in the direction of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and Gaza. In any case, there is no future for Israel. It is not a viable state anymore.

Let me close with a question, picking up on the point I made in a previous article. Would the Zionist entity have dared to assassinate Hezbollah’s leadership if the attack we saw today had been carried out a some of weeks ago?

Portuguese version available at Saker Latinoamérica: https://sakerlatam.blog/missil-hipersonico-o-diplomata-chefe-do-sul-global/