Kheibar Shekan

Iran's solid-fuel medium-range ballistic missile — fast to launch, road-mobile, and tipped with a maneuvering re-entry vehicle designed to jink in its final seconds and defeat missile defenses. It flew in Iran's 2024 barrages on Israel, and its booster later seeded the Fattah-1. As with all Iranian missiles, the headline numbers are state claims — read them with care.

Overview

The Kheibar Shekan (خیبرشکن, "Kheibar/Fortress-buster") is an Iranian solid-propellant medium-range ballistic missile fielded by the IRGC Aerospace Force, unveiled on 9 February 2022. Iran markets it as a "third-generation" missile with a claimed ~1,450 km range, a ~550 kg high-explosive warhead, and — its signature feature — a separating, tri-conic maneuverable re-entry vehicle (MaRV) that alters course in the terminal phase to evade interceptors. Solid fuel makes it quick to ready and road-mobile, fired from a commercial-truck transporter-erector-launcher with little preparation. For BattlePolicy it sits in the under-covered Iran watch and matters as a building block of Iran's precision-strike arsenal — its booster was the basis for the Fattah-1. The essential caveat: every performance figure here is an IRGC/state-media claim and remains unverified, and Israeli/US layered defenses intercepted the large majority of Iranian ballistic rounds across 2024-2026.

Development

Iran unveiled the Kheibar Shekan on 9 February 2022, presenting it as a faster-to-launch, longer-ranged solid-fuel complement to its older liquid-fuel missiles. Its design lineage matters in two directions: it built on Iran's maturing solid-propellant work, and its booster in turn seeded the Fattah-1, Iran's claimed "hypersonic" missile — so the Kheibar Shekan is the parent, not the offspring. An important naming caution: do not confuse it with the Khorramshahr-4 "Kheibar," a separate liquid-fuel heavy MRBM (a distinct entry); "Kheibar" used alone usually means the Khorramshahr-4.

Design & capabilities

Iran's figures give the Kheibar Shekan a ~1,450 km range (some independent compilations put it nearer 1,300 km), a ~550 kg HE warhead, and dimensions around 11.4 m length, 0.76 m diameter and ~6.3 tonnes, on a single-stage solid motor with a composite airframe. The militarily significant claim is the separating, maneuvering tri-conic RV with satellite-aided guidance: a warhead that adjusts course in the terminal phase is harder for an Arrow- or THAAD-class defense to intercept, and supports better accuracy (CEP not public). Iran has at times attached a "hypersonic" label and Mach 7-10 terminal speeds; independent analysts put the realistic terminal speed nearer Mach 2-3 for a missile of this class. (Honest flags: range 1,450 vs ~1,300 km; terminal speed Mach 7-10 claimed vs Mach 2-3 independent; warhead and CEP are Iranian claims — lean on the lower, independent figures.)

Variants

Open sources treat the Kheibar Shekan as a single design (sometimes rendered Kheibar Shekan-1/-2 for iterations). Its most consequential offshoot is not a variant but a derivative: the Fattah-1, which reuses the Kheibar Shekan's booster under a maneuvering glide warhead.

Combat record / operational use

The Kheibar Shekan has been used against Israel in Iran's direct missile barrages — the April and October 2024 attacks (Operation True Promise I/II), the June 2025 "Twelve-Day War," and the 2026 Iran war. Iran credits the maneuvering warhead with penetrating Israeli defenses; the honest picture is that Israeli and US layered defenses (Arrow, THAAD, Aegis) intercepted most incoming Iranian ballistic missiles across these salvos, and no Kheibar-Shekan-specific intercept tally exists — published statistics are whole-salvo, not per missile type.

Advantages

• Solid fuel — fast to ready and launch, with little pre-launch signature; road-mobile.
• Maneuvering RV — terminal course changes complicate interception by Arrow/THAAD-class defenses.
• Mass-producible — part of a large, diversified Iranian ballistic inventory for saturation salvos.
• Reach — claimed ~1,450 km covers Israel and the wider region from Iranian territory.

Drawbacks / limitations

• Unverified claims — range, speed and "hypersonic" labels are Iranian state assertions.
• Interceptable — most Iranian ballistic rounds were stopped by layered defenses in 2024-2026.
• Naming confusion — routinely conflated with the Khorramshahr-4 "Kheibar."
• No public accuracy data — CEP and per-type effectiveness are not independently known.

Counterparts

Within Iran's arsenal the Kheibar Shekan sits among the solid-fuel Sejjil and is the parent of the Fattah-1; it should be kept distinct from the liquid-fuel Khorramshahr family. Internationally it is a peer of other regional MRBMs (and faces Israel's Jericho on the other side). Its defining feature versus older Iranian missiles is the solid-fuel readiness plus a maneuvering warhead.

Outlook

The Kheibar Shekan is a maturing piece of Iran's strategy of quantity plus maneuver — many solid-fuel, road-mobile missiles with terminal-evading warheads, fired in saturating salvos to overwhelm even excellent defenses. The 2024-2026 strikes on Israel were the real-world test, and the honest verdict is mixed: the missiles flew and some leaked through, but most were intercepted. The watch-items: any independent data on its true accuracy and terminal behavior, how the maneuvering RV actually fares against Arrow/THAAD, and how many Iran can field for saturation. Logged at low confidence — Iranian-claim specs, real combat use, contested effect.

Key specifications

Sources

1. Kheibar Shekan — Wikipedia
2. Kheibar Shekan — GlobalSecurity.org
3. Iran's missile arsenal (table) — Iran Watch
4. Iran unveils the Kheibar Shekan — BBC Persian
5. What is the Kheibar Shekan missile? — Euronews
6. A brief guide to Iranian ballistic missiles — AOAV
7. Iran claims a hypersonic-capable Kheibar launch against Israel's air defenses — Army Recognition
8. How did Israel's air defenses fare against Iran's ballistic missiles? — Forbes

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