The cruise missile launched by Iran to Israel was presented in Moscow

Iran is taking advantage of its tightening relationship with Russia not only in order to reap revenue from the sale of UAVs to Putin’s war machine in Ukraine, or to accumulate Russian knowledge in various security fields. Recently, at the “Army 2024” exhibition, which was held last month in Moscow, the Ayatollahs’ regime presented the “Fawa” cruise missile, which it launched into Israel on April 14.

This cruise missile was unveiled by the Iranians in February of last year, but it is based on a series of “Quds” missiles that the Iranians originally developed for the Houthis, for the benefit of the civil war in Yemen. Like many Iranian military systems, the bulk of its components were created through “reverse engineering”. That is, a process in which you manage to get your hands on a device, experts analyze its components in depth – and then produce one a month in a serial procedure.

The range of Fava is 1,650 km, which means that the Revolutionary Guards, for example, can launch it from Iran to Israel – as happened in April. Its speed is estimated at 900-800 km/h, because like any cruise missile – it is slower than a missile ballistic. In terms of times, while the path of a ballistic missile towards Israel on April 14 lasted about 12 minutes, that of Pava took about two and a half hours.

Fawa, like all cruise missiles, maneuvers – hence a significant challenge in intercepting it. The “Bulgarian Military” website reported that the missile was launched from ground platforms, and especially from mobile launchers. Thus, the Iranians can jump with the missiles to different areas, while experts estimate that the Iranians are also able to launch the missile from vessels and submarines.

Experts in the field: the missile does not pose a significant challenge to Israel’s air defense system

A significant feature of Pava is its navigation capabilities. These combine an inertial navigation system (INS) and satellite navigation. An inertial navigation system measures acceleration and angular velocity to understand position. This is a system that is used, for example, in submarines: a gyroscope measures the angle, an accelerometer and a magnetometer, which examines the direction relative to the Earth’s magnetic field.

The GNSS is divided into four systems: GPS – USA; Galileo – Europe; Baidu – China; and GLONASS – Russia. In the case of Pawa, the Iranians use GPS and GLONASS for course corrections. Therefore, although Pawa is intended for long ranges, It remains accurate. In the final stage, Fawa uses, apparently, a ground tracking system (TERCOM), that is, a system that performs a comparison between a pre-entered height map and the system, in order to verify the correct height.

Experts in the field who spoke to the “Bulgarian Military” website said that it does not appear that the missile, of which 36 units were launched into Israel on April 14, poses a significant challenge to the Israeli air defense system. However, if and when the Ayatollah regime chooses to carry out hundreds of launches from different places and to a large number of targets, then the quantity is the one that will push the air defense system to the limit.

The Israeli air defense system includes several systems: Arrow 3 and Arrow 2 of the aerospace industry for intercepting ballistic missiles, with the difference between them being that Arrow 3 is intended for interception outside the atmosphere, while Arrow 2 is inside it. Below them, are David’s catapult and Raphael’s iron dome. David’s slingshot is designed for medium-range threats and iron dome for short-range threats.

In addition to all these, Saar 6 ships carry additional air defense systems: LRAD, one of the interceptors of the Barak Magen (Barak MX) system of the Aerospace Industry, and has a medium range of 70 km. Besides, there is a capability that has already been proven several times in the War of Swords “Barzel” – a protective dome system, the naval Iron Dome. A protective dome is based on the Iron Dome system, and is designed to protect Israel’s economic waters against rockets, cruise missiles and UAVs.