Details were scarce but the new laser guided missile appears to be a laser guided version of the Iranian copy of the American TOW wire-guided ATGM (Anti-tank guided missile). In 2020 Iran announced several new weapons, including an unnamed laser-guided missile launched from a rebuilt 1970s era American AH-1J helicopter gunship. Iran had earlier built smaller UAVs similar to early Israeli designs that inspired the Americans to build the Predator. For example, in 2021 Iran announced the Kaman 22, which was a copy of the American Predator with some features of the similar Chinese CH-5.
Meanwhile, Iran has continued to be active in promoting its real and imaginary new weapons. Israel’s success at this is one reason so many Arab nations have finally established diplomatic or defense relationships with Israel in the past few years. Despite Iran’s past experience with these untested and the possible exaggerated capabilities of these weapons, Israel has to devote intel resources to check it out. Israeli air defenses have foiled all of those efforts and increased attacks on Iranian efforts to transport these cruise missiles to Lebanon or Syria. Iran has already tried using UAVs to attack Israel via launch sites in Lebanon or Syria. Israel has its own surveillance satellites as well as access to similar but more numerous American satellites. Iran would have to know what detection capabilities Israel has in or on the airspace of those nations. Iran could bribe or intimidate enough Iraqi officials to ignore any visual or radar detection of Arash 2s passing through to reach Israel via Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Syria. The long range implies the Arash 2 can evade all the air defenses of other hostile countries between Iran and Israel. The latest announcement features the Arash-2 UAV cruise missile which was designed specifically to attack Israel. Apparently this continues because it boosts morale in Iran and frightens some of Iran’s many enemies. Iran has used the element of surprise and deception to make attacks on neighbors but succeed in denying responsibility. There are some Iranian systems that are effective but none of them are as effective as advertised. Iran regularly announces new weapons that never see combat or don’t perform as expected if they do. That last item is important because it is often used by Israel to defeat UAVs. The new version is also said to have improved stealth, navigation and protection against electronic countermeasures. The main difference between the original Arash, revealed in 2021, is that Arash 2 has a range of 4,000 kilometers compared to 1,400 kilometers for the original Arash. Iran recently announced the new Arash 2 version of their stealthy, long-range, UAV optimized for one-way missions acting as a cruise missile.
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