Iran has fielded a new generation of ballistic missiles that can evade American air defenses and strike with far greater precision:
The centerpiece of that shift is a highly mobile ballistic missile Iran calls the Kheibar Shekan, or “Castle Breaker,” which has a range of 900 miles and a satellite-guided, maneuverable warhead.
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Unlike a conventional ballistic missile that travels a fixed path defenders can track and try to intercept, the Kheibar Shekan can quickly change course in the final phase of its descent, potentially slipping past air defenses and hitting targets with devastating precision, those sources said.
Mounted on mobile launchers, the solid-fuel missile is extremely difficult to detect and destroy before launch, allowing it to survive American bombardment campaigns. It can easily reach U.S. and allied targets across the Middle East, including in Israel – and major American bases like Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and the Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.
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Jim Lamson, a CIA analyst from 1998 to 2021, said the Kheibar Shekan’s guidance system allows it to adjust its trajectory and maneuver rapidly to strike within 10 meters of a target, a significant achievement given how far it travels.
And its ability to “maneuver in the terminal phase” means it can “completely avoid” two or three interceptors fired at it by opposing military forces, Lamson, who now tracks Iran’s missile program as a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told USA TODAY.
Since 2024, Iran has stacked on incremental improvements – likely with the help of Chinese and Russian technology – to make the missile a particularly lethal threat to the 30,000 to 40,000 U.S. troops in the region, Lamson said.
The updates include improved satellite guidance, altered launch trajectories that are harder for missile-defense radar to predict, better resistance to electronic jamming and coordinated barrages that mix ballistic missiles with swarms of drones, he said.
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Hackett, who once worked out of the U.S. Embassy in Jordan, described the July 17 strike as a “live combat test” of the Kheibar Shekan against U.S. bases in Jordan. He said the Kheibar is especially dangerous because its maneuverability allows it to strike “dynamic” targets, including people and military assets that moved at the last minute to dodge them.
That includes valuable aircraft, he said, “and these huge fuel bladders sitting around with tons of jet fuel in them. These can be struck now by this weapon and cause mass explosions and casualties.”