The Ya-Ali (

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 ...

: یاعلی) is an air-launched

cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...

(ALCM) built by

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The missile was first unveiled on 11 May 2014 when Iranian leader Grand Ayatollah

Ali Khamenei Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنه‌ای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...

visited the Aerospace Force of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. According to Janes Defence, the missile has a jet engine inlet and possibly uses a version of the

Toloue-4 The Toloue-4 ( fa, طلوع, ''Dawn'') is one of the first indigenously produced jet engines in Iran. The Toloue-4 mini turbojet is being built at Iran Aircraft Industries's (IACI) engine industries (TEM). The engine is an unlicensed copy of th ...

turbojet Iran produces for its longer-range anti-ship missiles and it is reported to have a range of 700 km. On February 7, 2015, Iran's Deputy Defense Minister Mohammad Eslami announced that the missile could previously be launched from only

Mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', meanin ...

type fighter planes but it can now be launched from every fighter plane that Iran owns. It is named after a Shi'i religious expression beseeching imam Ali. As an ALCM, the Ya-Ali is distinct from the ground launched cruise missiles (GLCMs) in the Houthi inventory. According to Jane's Defense Weekly, the Houthis may have used a

Quds 1 Quds-1, designated '351' by the US Government, is a land-attack cruise missile used by Houthi movement in Yemen. The Houthis claim that they have developed it themselves, but some sources disagree. Design According to missile expert Fabian Hinz ...

GLCM in the

Abha International Airport attack The Abha International Airport attacks were cruise missile attacks carried out by the Yemeni Houthi rebels which occurred in June 2019. The attack targeted the arrivals hall of Abha International Airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia and killed o ...

on 12 June 2019. This airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia is less than 200 km from the Yemeni border. The Iranian Ya-Ali has a much longer range due to being imparted with much more kinetic and potential energy when released from a fighter aircraft such as the Mirage type. The Houthis have no fighter aircraft in their inventory. Jane's Defense Weekly reported on September 16, 2019 that, according to US officials, "There are indications that the 14 September attack on two oil facilities in Saudi Arabia were carried out using cruise missiles launched from Iraq or possibly Iran." It went on to say "the impact points showed the weapons approached from the west northwest, rather than Yemen, as claimed by the Iranian-backed Yemeni rebel group Ansar Allah ( Houthis). 'It is very difficult to see how these things could have come from anywhere but Iran or Iraq,' CNN quoted the official as saying." Some of the targets struck on September 14, 2019 were oil processing facilities at Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia. Abqaiq is located near

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

, is approximately 1,000 km from the Houthi-controlled portion of Yemen, and is approximately 300 km from Iran.

Operators

References

Cruise missiles of Iran Air-launched missiles Weapons and ammunition introduced in 2014 Air-to-surface missiles Air-to-surface missiles of Iran Cruise missiles Guided missiles of Iran {{missile-stub

Operators

See also

References