The Iranian show of force comes amid an increased US military presence in the region after Israel began bombing Gaza.

Tehran, Iran – Iran has unveiled an improved version of its hypersonic missile at a military exhibition for the country’s supreme leader.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visited a university of the Aerospace Department of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran on Sunday, where a more advanced version of the Fattah hypersonic missile was displayed along with a number of weapons, including the Iranian-made Gaza drone.

A new version of the Shahed series of unmanned aerial vehicles An improved version of the 9-Dey anti-missile system was also introduced, capable of firing short- to medium-range projectiles.

In addition, the IRGC unveiled a new missile defense system called Mehran, which is said to employ solid-fuel missiles.

Iran first unveiled the missile in June, joining a small group of countries, including China and Russia, that have weapons that fly long distances and have good maneuverability.

Iranian state media said the Fattah II missile is a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), a projectile that glides to its target after the initial launch and is more predictable compared to a ballistic warhead Arc pattern moves, providing significantly more maneuverability.

No further information was released on Sunday about the updated version, but Iran had said that Fattah was capable of moving at speeds of up to Mach 15 (5.1 km or 3.2 miles per second) and a Travel range of 1,400 km (870 miles).

IRGC officials said in June that the elite force could are trying to improve its offering of hypersonic missiles to 2,000 km (1,242 miles), which would effectively cover the distance to Iran’s regional arch-enemy Israel.

Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday again condemned Israel and its Western allies for their war in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 12,000 Palestinians, almost half of them children.

Khamenei said “the Zionist regime is a symbol of racism,” adding that Western support for the weeks-long bombing of the enclave meant Western leaders “also believe in racism and see nothing wrong in it.”

He said brutal attacks on hospitals in Gaza indicate anger from Israel’s leadership over its “failure” to defeat Palestinian fighters.

“Islamic governments must sever their political relations with the Zionist regime, at least for a limited period of time,” Khamenei said, also calling on Muslim states to cut off the flow of energy and goods to Israel.

The Iranian military’s show of force came as the United States deployed significant military assets, including two aircraft carrier strike groups and a nuclear submarine, to the region.

Under the umbrella of the Iran-backed “Resistance Axis” of political and armed groups across the region, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis have been engaged in cross-border fighting with Israel since last month in solidarity with Hamas militants.

Israel said on Sunday the Houthis had seized a British- and Japanese-operated cargo ship in the southern Red Sea, describing the attack as an “Iranian act of terrorism”.