Russia secretly aiding Iran in development of supersonic cruise missile technology

Russia has been secretly helping Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles, London-based outlet The Financial Times reported on Wednesday morning, which experts say would likely have been intended for anti-ship and land attacks.

The program, codenamed C430L, began in 2023 and was arranged by Russia's state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, in coordination with the US-sanctioned NPO Mashinostroyenia, FT reported.

According to FT, Russian arms export officials and senior NPO Mashinostroyenia engineers traveled to Iran repeatedly in 2023.

Among the engineers who conducted these trips were Alexander Dergachev, chief designer for sea-launched missiles and cruise missile complexes; Alexander Chebakov, head of NPO Mashinostroyenia’s design department for air-breathing propulsion units and a specialist in supersonic ramjet propulsion for cruise missiles; and Yuri Prokhorchuk, head of the aerodynamics and ballistics department.

FT also learned that Vladislav Kuzmichev, head of Rosoboronexport’s department of defense technologies and space, accompanied the delegation on its third trip to Iran, and later negotiated the C430L contract with Iran.

By 2025, NPO Mashinostroyenia had received various Iranian technical materials, which Russian engineers analyzed and responded to with various questions.

In correspondence seen by FT from April 2025, Rosoboronexport proposed sending a delegation of Russian specialists to Iran and asked Tehran to answer the engineers' questions before the trip.

“People often think about technology transfers as being solely about sending blueprints, parts, or entire missiles," Fabian Hinz, an Iranian missiles expert and senior analyst with Conflict Armament Research, a UK-based weapons-tracing organization, told FT, "but getting a 60-year-old engineer to fly over and problem-solve, using their experience, is hugely valuable.”

On Tuesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for Moscow's position on the war in Iran and resulting sanctions, and said that together, Moscow and Tehran can resist what he called US "unilateralism."

The two leaders spoke on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

During the meeting, Putin told Pezeshkian that Moscow stood in solidarity with the Iranian people in the fight for their interests.

Putin also said that Russia and Iran will maintain their economic and trade relationship despite the current military and political environment.

“During this difficult period, we are striving to provide you with the necessary assistance - as we have discussed - and are supplying you with essential goods,” Putin said.

Pezeshkian, in turn, said that the US does not have the right to impose sanctions "whenever they please," and accused them of violating international law and committing acts of aggression.

Russia and Iran, he said, would find ways to circumvent the US sanctions.

"Within frameworks like the SCO and other organizations, we can bypass unilateral measures and cooperate on a multilateral basis,” he stated.

Notably, the US sanctions Pezeshkian was referring to, including Washington’s latest measures targeting Iranian financial networks and IRGC-linked assets, are not in themselves prohibited under international law. Economic sanctions also do not constitute an “act of aggression” under the UN definition.

Reuters contributed to this report.