The Soumar (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: سومار) is an Iranian long-range

cruise missile A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled guided missile that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large payload over long distances with high precision. Modern cru ...

. The missile was named in the honour of a village called Soumar, whose inhabitants were all killed when

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

’s regime attacked the village with chemical weapons. It is highly likely that the missile is derived from the Russian / Soviet

Kh-55 The Kh-55 (, also known as RKV-500; NATO reporting name: AS-15 "Kent") is a Soviet/Russian subsonic air-launched cruise missile, designed by MKB Raduga in the 1970s. It has a range of up to and can carry nuclear warheads. Kh-55 is launched ex ...

, several of which were illegally sold to Iran by Ukraine in 2001. According to Jonathan Ruhe and Blake Fleisher from the Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy (part of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Washington D.C.), nuclear capable cruise missiles, such as the Soumar, were overlooked in the

Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA; (, BARJAM)), also known as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal, is an agreement to limit the Iranian nuclear program in return for sanctions relief and other provisions. The agreement was finalize ...

(JCPOA) on Iran's nuclear program and UN Security Council Resolution 2231. In 2015 a long-range cruise missile was revealed under the name “Soumar”. The design closely resembles the Kh-55 that Iran acquired from Ukraine in 2001. Because of the similarities media have speculated its range as between 2000 and 3000 km. On 2 February 2019 Iran unveiled the Hoveyzah Cruise Missile, a surface-to-surface missile with a claimed range of more than 1,350 kilometres during celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the

1979 Islamic revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

References

External links

CSIS Missile Threat - Soumar
Cruise missiles of Iran Cruise missiles Guided missiles of Iran Military equipment introduced in the 2010s {{Missile-stub

See also

References

External links