The US-Israel war against Iran has been a showcase for a number of new weapons systems.
Israeli forces are believed to have killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomenei with a sophisticated ballistic missile called the Blue Sparrow.
Launched from an Israeli Air Force F-15 jet, the missile travelled into space before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and blasting into its target.
The 6.5 metre long missile, which weighs around 1.9 tonnes, and has a range of 1,240 miles was originally created as a target missile to test air defence systems.
But adapted Blue Sparrows are now used as offensive air-to-surface weapons because of their high speeds and ability to exit and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, making them more difficult to intercept and giving targets less time to react.
These abilities also make them ideal for striking against high-value targets within a limited time frame, without putting manned aircraft at risk.
America has also deployed, for the first time, its Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (Lucas), a long-range strike drone that is relatively cheap and modelled on the Iranian-designed Shahed-136 projectiles used by Russia in Ukraine.
The US has also used its PrSM ballistic missiles for the first time. These missiles have a range of 500km and have been fired from HIMARS launchers in Bahrain.
America is thought to have also employed Anthropic’s Claude, an artificial-intelligence model, to process intelligence, select targets and carry out military simulations.
Although so far there has been no official confirmation that Blue Sparrow was used, long grey cylinders of debris consistent with it have been found in western Iraq along what was its probable flight path to Iran.
The Israeli jets took two hours to fly from their bases into position, firing off 30 missiles into the Ayatollah’s compound in Tehran.
The precision attack, which was months in planning, involving extensive “high fidelity” information sharing between the CIA and Israel, also killed a number of Iran’s most senior terror officials.
The Blue Sparrow is part of an air-launched missile series, including the Black Sparrow and Silver Sparrow, each with differing ranges and capabilities.
The missiles are manufactured by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd, an Israeli defence technology company originally founded in 1948.
The firm makes a number of other missiles, including the David’s Sling surface to air missile, and the renowned Iron Dome air defence system.
Weapons experts estimate the cost of a single Blue Sparrow at “several million dollars” but say the expense is justified by the relative safety it allows pilots.
As well as the Blue Sparrows, Israel claimed to have dropped 2,000 bombs in the first 30 hours of the war.
The US launched Tomahawk cruise missiles, including a new black variant, and HIMARS rockets, hitting more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours.
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