Footage Shows Moments Iranian Fattah-2 Hypersonic Glide Vehicle Strikes Fortified Israeli Command Centre: High Level Casualties Reported
Middle East , Missile and Space
Footage from Israel has shown the moments when an Iranian hypersonic glide vehicle impacted a fortified Israel Defence Forces command centre, reportedly causing the deaths of seven senior officers and multiple additional casualties. The trajectory and speed of the impact closely resembles that of the Russian Oreshnik ballistic missile seen in use against targets in Ukraine in January, which also integrates hypersonic glide vehicles, supporting Iranian reports that such vehicles have been used for strikes against Israel. Although Iran in June 2025 reported the use of the older baseline Fattah ballistic missile against Israeli targets, which local sources referred to as a “hypersonic missile,” this missile used an advanced manoeuvring reentry vehicle, rather than a genuine hypersonic glide vehicle. The Fattah-2, by contrast, was first reported used in the current conflict after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, and is the first and only Iranian missile type known to integrate a hypersonic glide vehicle.
Although U.S. and Israeli missile defences are under strain from strikes by older types of Iranian ballistic missiles, with the number of interceptors remaining highly limited, the use of hypersonic missiles, and to lesser extents missiles with manoeuvring reentry vehicles or multiple warheads, have posed particularly significant challenges. Hypersonic glide vehicles can manoeuvre in both course and pitch, carrying out lateral manoeuvres several thousand kilometres above the Armstrong Limit, which combined with their extreme speeds makes them nearly impossible for existing air defence systems to intercept. The use of the Fattah-2 to strike very high value Israeli command infrastructure not only demonstrates the high levels of precision achieved, which is particularly difficult for such high speed weapons, but also an ability to gather intelligence within Israel.
The first launch of the Fattah in the current conflict was reported on February 28, followed by the first reported launch of the Fattah-2 on March 1, with footage from Israel indicating that at least three successful Fattah-2 strikes have been launched. Iran’s development of ballistic missiles with hypersonic glide vehicles has been singled out as a particular threat by Israeli sources. Vice President of the leading Israeli missile defence system developer Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, Yuval Baseski, in August 2025 highlighted that this had forced the firm and the Israel Defence Forces to rethink their approach to missile defence. “Hypersonic missiles open a new era in air defence,” he observed, warning that traditional approaches to missile defence could not be relied on against them. “Every air defence system today is based on flying faster than the target. But this principle does not apply to hypersonic missiles. To intercept an object moving at Mach 10, one would need a defence moving at Mach 30, which is impossible in the atmosphere due to friction,” he stated.
Drawing an analogy to basketball, Baseski observed: “One interceptor missile tracking one hypersonic missile is like defending LeBron James with a single player. You may keep chasing him, but you won’t stop him from scoring.” He instead suggested a “zone defence” model, under which multiple interceptors covered defined areas and engaged threats as they approached. As Israel has yet to show signs of being able to implement this approach, which even if financed would take several years and likely cost tens of billions of dollars, it is likely that Iran’s Fattah-2 arsenal will continue to be able to penetrate Israeli defences with impunity. This has placed more pressure on Israeli and U.S. forces to quickly gain greater dominance over Iranian airspace to destroy ballistic missile launchers on the ground before they are able to fire.
