Russia Helps Iran Develop Engines for Supersonic Cruise Missiles — FT

Russia is helping Iran develop engines for supersonic cruise missiles as part of a secret program codenamed C430L.

The Financial Times reported this in an investigation.

According to the publication, the program began in 2023 and continued into 2026, after the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Journalists uncovered details of the program based on leaked Russian correspondence, travel data, and an analysis of military patents.

The main goal of C430L is to help Iran develop a ramjet for anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles. Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport organized the program and coordinated it with NPO Mashinostroyenia.

Travel records indicate that Russian arms export officials and senior NPO Mashinostroyenia engineers repeatedly visited Iran before the C430L program contract was signed with Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics in November 2023.

By 2025, NPO Mashinostroyenia had received substantial Iranian technical data on the ramjet. Russian engineers analyzed the results of Iran’s flight tests and sent Tehran questions regarding the fuel system, combustion stability, intake, and nozzle.

In April 2025, Rosoboronexport offered to send a delegation of around two dozen Russian specialists to Iran for technical consultations.

Experienced specialists from NPO Mashinostroyenia were involved in the project. Among them was Alexandr Dergachov, then deputy head of the enterprise and chief designer of sea-launched missiles and cruise missile systems.

Alexandr Chebakov, who heads the design department responsible for developing airbreathing jet engines, visited Tehran three times in 2023. Russian patents list him as the inventor of developments related to supersonic ramjet control systems and cruise missile engines.

The delegation also included Yuri Prokhorchuk, head of the aerodynamics and ballistics department at NPO Mashinostroyenia and co-author of a patent for a hypersonic cruise missile with a ramjet designed to strike ships and land targets.

In July 2023, during their third trip, the Russian engineers were joined by Vladislav Kuzmichev, head of Rosoboronexport’s defense technologies and space department. He later signed the contract with Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics on behalf of the Russian state-owned company.

Iran had been trying to master this technology for decades. In 2016, Iran’s then-defense minister announced plans to develop supersonic anti-ship missiles, while in August 2023, Tasnim, an IRGC-affiliated news agency, reported that testing had begun on a prototype supersonic cruise missile.

Experts estimate that Russian assistance could help Iran overcome technical challenges in developing such an engine and eventually use the technology to develop various types of missile weaponry.

In February, Reuters reported that Iran was close to reaching a deal with China to procure CM-302 supersonic anti-ship missiles to counter the U.S. Navy.