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US May Have Fired New Missile in Iran War

Investigations suggest Pentagon deployed a PrSM that struck sports hall, school
Posted Mar 30, 2026 6:01 AM CDT
New US Missile May Have Hit Civilian Sites
This image provided by US Central Command shows the USS Thomas Hudner firing a Tomahawk missile on March 1, 2026. The US also appears to have used a new type of missile called PrSM.   (U.S. Navy via AP)

A new missile in the American arsenal appears to have been used in combat for the first time in Iran, according to a visual investigation by the New York Times. A BBC investigation reached the same conclusion. The attack by what's known as a Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM, took place in the city of Lamerd on the first day of the war and struck a sports hall and neighboring elementary school, both of which were located next to a Revolutionary Guards compound. Iran says 21 people were killed. (This was different from a more widely publicized strike on an elementary school in Minab that killed nearly 200.)

The buildings struck were identified on public mapping platforms as civilian sites, and it's "difficult to assess whether the PrSM strikes in Lamerd were intentional, stemmed from a design flaw or manufacturing defect, or were the result of improper target selection," per the Times story. Munitions analysts say videos and damage patterns—the missile is designed to explode above its target—strongly point to the PrSM, a ballistic weapon the US Army only finished prototyping last year. It has a range of about 400 miles. A US official, speaking anonymously, confirmed that identification to the Times.

Given that civilian sites were struck, the findings raise questions about the missile's performance and the Pentagon's practice of what it calls "combat evaluation" of cutting-edge weapons in live conflicts. "We're aware of the reports and are looking into them," says Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for US Central Command. "US forces do not indiscriminately target civilians, unlike the Iranian regime."

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