Iran gaining supersonic cruise missiles with Russian help could allow the regime to take out US naval ships and potentially inflict a mass casualty event that leads to major escalation of the war, experts believe.
Russian engineers have supported Iranian efforts to produce missiles based on a ramjet propulsion system that are faster, harder to intercept, and cause more damage, according to a Financial Times investigation, citing leaked correspondence and travel records.
The programme, which reportedly began in 2023, would mark the most significant Russian military invention on Iran’s side during its wars against the US and Israel, amid mounting evidence that both Russia and China are increasing their assistance to Tehran.
Military experts say the weapons could allow Iran to pose a greater threat to dozens of US vessels being used to enforce a blockade against the country and its oil exports, including two aircraft carriers, each with about 5,000 crew members aboard.
The Royal Navy has steadily reduced its presence in the Middle East, withdrawing its last warship from the Gulf in January to leave the UK without one in the region for the first time in 46 years.
But in June, the destroyer HMS Dragon was deployed to support a French carrier strike group, and then prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said in July the UK was “ready” to support demining efforts in the Strait of Hormuz.
Sea state: enthusiastic. Despite the lively monsoon seas, HMS Dragon is pressing on with operations in the Middle East. A bit of pitching and rolling is all part of life at sea – and the mission continues.#Breathingfire #LifeAtSea @RoyalNavy @DefenceOps pic.twitter.com/3bfjYvEPi0
— HMS Dragon (@HMSDragon) July 24, 2026Dr Sidharth Kaushal, a missile and sea power expert at the UK defence think-tank Rusi, said the new capability could allow Iran to pose a greater threat to seafarers.
“A supersonic cruise missile would enhance Iran’s ability to strike ships by shortening the engagement times for on-board air defences,” he said. “This would be a particular challenge in an already congested theatre such as Hormuz where engagement times are short anyway given the short distances involved.”
“Unlike anti-ship ballistic missiles, a supersonic cruise missile like the Russian P-800, can fly at a sea-skimming altitude where the limits imposed on radar horizons by the Earth’s curvature would compound the defenders’ problem.”
But Iran’s ability to use the weapons would be constrained by its ability to track targets, which is likely to have been degraded by US attacks on its coastal radar network, Kaushal added.
Iran has made sparing use of its stockpile of anti-ship missiles in the war to date, which have also been a target of US air strikes as part of the campaign to gain control of the strait, which remains subject to targeted blockades from the US and Iran after six months of hostilities.
Thousands of sailors remain trapped in commercial vessels stranded around the Strait of Hormuz after six months of hostilities (Photo: Reuters)Tehran may already possess similar capabilities to the weapons said to be under development with Russian assistance. Iran was reportedly in talks with the Kremlin over supplying ramjet-powered Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles (P-800) to its Houthis allies in Yemen in 2024, drawing protests from the US and Saudi Arabia.
Tom Newdick, an air warfare specialist at military news outlet The War Zone, said Iran appeared to be prioritising development of anti-ship weapons.
“Based on what we know about Iranian research into this area, and the potential sale of Russian Yakhont missiles to Tehran, this development appears to underscore Iran’s push to enhance its anti-ship capabilities,” he said. “This could further threaten vessels operating in the Strait of Hormuz.”
The US Navy has defences capable of countering the threat “but combining them with ballistic missiles, subsonic cruise missiles, and drones, makes the maritime air defence picture more complicated”, Newdick added.
Development of such a system could take years but it was unclear how far the programme had come, he said.
While Tehran’s forces have succeeded in striking numerous US bases in the region, and shooting down dozens of US aircraft, they have yet to record a successful strike on a ship, despite several attempts.
If that changes, a war that is now being fought at relatively low intensity could become a raging inferno, said Ken Katzman, a former CIA analyst with a focus on Iran, now at the Soufan Centre foreign policy think-tank in Washington DC.
“There are certain targets that, if they were hit, are going to fuel support for a ground offensive against Iran,” he said. “Hitting and causing a mass casualty event aboard a US Navy vessel is certainly going to inflame support for Trump’s war effort.”
Michael Mulroy, who served as Middle East lead in the US State Department during the first Trump administration, agreed that successful use of Russian-assisted missiles would lead to a new phase of warfare.
“If Iran actually strikes a US naval vessel, they will likely be in for way more than they expect. The US military will likely respond by overwhelming force and expand the targets,” he said, citing infrastructure targets in Iran such as power plants that Trump has threatened but largely held back on attacking.
A US fighter jet on the deck of the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, recently deployed to the Arabian Sea. Iran has to date been unable to successfully hit an American ship in the conflict (Photo: US Navy/AFP)Iran’s ability to develop the weapons could be impaired by the damage to missile production facilities caused by US and Israeli bombardment over two conflicts since June 2025.
Satellite images show extensive damage to key missile production sites, such as complexes in the cities of Isfahan and Shahrud. Unlike some missile stockpiles buried deep under concrete, many production sites were above ground and vulnerable.
Babak Taghvaee, an author and historian specialising in the Iranian military, believes the regime will struggle to resume production of any missile, and in particular advanced new technology.
“Under these circumstances, it will not be easy for Iran’s ministry of defence and armed forces logistics even to restore production of weapons that it was already manufacturing before the war,” he said. “Many of the specialised tools, machinery, components, and production systems required for these weapons were acquired through extremely difficult procurement processes over a period of decades.”
But increasing support for Iran from Russia, and to a lesser extent China, is a growing concern for Washington, analysts said.
President Vladimir Putin pledged further support for Iran at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, at a meeting in Kyrgyzstan this week. “During this difficult time, we are trying to provide you with the assistance you need,” he said. “We have discussed this with you and are supplying you with the necessary goods.”
Vladimir Putin meets Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the sidelines of the SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan. The Russian leader said they are supplying Iran ‘with the necessary goods’ (Photo: Iranian presidency/Getty)Russia has already provided its ally with intelligence used to target US bases in the Gulf, according to US intelligence assessments, as well as man-portable air defence missiles, and reportedly offered to supply “jam-proof” drones. The two countries have forged a closer bond since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after which Iran supplied Russia with thousands of Shahed suicide drones.
China has also discussed supplying advanced anti-ship missiles to Iran this year, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with talks, although Beijing denied this.
Washington’s rivals have clear incentives, and intentions, to exploit America’s position of being in a drawn-out conflict in the Gulf, said Dr Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London.
“For Moscow, a prolonged but contained Iran war is actually a very attractive strategic outcome,” he said. “It pulls American air defence systems, precision munitions, intelligence platforms and political attention away from Europe. It puts enormous pressure on US stockpiles. It raises energy prices, which benefits Russia. And it keeps an important anti-Western partner alive.
“I think the idea of bleeding the United States has considerable explanatory power here,” he added.
“There is an interesting mirror image of Ukraine developing. Washington discovered that it could impose extraordinary costs on Russia by enabling another state to fight without directly entering the war. Moscow has every incentive to apply exactly the same logic against the US.”
Hence then, the article about putin s supersonic missiles could take out a us ship and escalate trump s war was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Putin’s supersonic missiles could take out a US ship – and escalate Trump’s war )
Also on site :