# Russia is secretly helping Iran develop supersonic missiles

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/russia-is-secretly-helping-iran-develop-supersonic-missiles/
- Published: 2026-09-02T08:17:18+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-02T08:25:47+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Mail (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16098219/Russia-Iran-develop-supersonic-missiles.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
- Topics: Europe, Middle East, World

## Key points

- Russia is secretly helping Iran build supersonic cruise missiles, FT investigation finds
- Programme "C43OL" aims to give Iran a ramjet propulsion system
- Comes amid deepening Russia-Iran military ties and fresh US-Iran clashes

## Summary

An investigation by the Financial Times has found that Russia has been secretly helping Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles, in what could be the most significant known transfer of military technology between the two countries. The programme, codenamed C43OL, has enlisted some of Moscow's top missile experts to help Tehran build a ramjet propulsion system, which would let a cruise missile sustain flight at several times the speed of sound, making it capable of threatening US aircraft carriers and warships in the Middle East and extremely difficult to intercept.

The scheme was arranged by Russia's state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, working with state-owned rocket designer NPO Mashinostroyenia, which the US sanctioned in 2014 over cruise missile development. Leaked travel records show Russian officials and engineers made repeated trips to Iran before a formal contract was signed in November 2023, and by 2025 Moscow had received a large cache of Iranian technical material on the propulsion system; Iran has tested but not yet deployed it. Experts say the deal, which would require top-level political approval in Russia, reflects a deepening exchange in which Iran has supplied Moscow with attack drones for use in Ukraine, and comes as fresh US-Iran hostilities this week have seen American strikes on Iranian military targets and Iranian retaliatory attacks across the region.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.