The Aerospace Force of the Iranian The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has fielded a new long-range cruise missile, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh announced on February 24.

Speaking on Iranian state television, the senior commander said that the ground-launched cruise missile has a range of 1,650 kilometers. The missile was named Paveh to commemorate Iranian troops who died while fighting in Iran’s Kurdistan province during the war with Iraq.

The television broadcast the footage showing the cruise missile launch, then flying low over terrain before hitting a target with pinpoint accuracy.

With a range of 1,650 kilometers, the Paveh cruise missile can easily hit any target across Israel when launched from Iran’s western region.

Beyond the range, Brig. Gen. Hajizadeh gave no further details of the missile. However, the first footage indicates that the Paveh is similar in design to the Type 351 land-attack cruise missile used by the Houthis (Ansar Allah) in Yemen. The Paveh features a top-mounted turbojet jet engine just like the Type 351 missile, which is also known as Quds-1.

Iran has been developing cruise missiles for a while now. In 2011, the country said that it was developing a land-attack cruise missile dubbed Meshkat with a range of 2,000 kilometers. A year later, the Soumar land-attack cruise missile, which is thought to have a range of 2,000-3,000 kilometers was unveiled. A new version of the Soumar, dubbed Hoveyzeh, with a range of 1,350 kilometers was presented in 2015.

Unlike the Paveh, the design of previous Iranian cruise missiles were reportedly derived from the Soviet-era Kh-55, several of which were illegally sold to Iran by Ukraine in 2001.

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