New US missile appears to have left wide path of death and destruction
in Iranian city, report says
[September 01, 2026]
By JULIA FRANKEL
It has been touted by the manufacturer as the ballistic missile of the
future: lethal, long-range and pinpoint. Lockheed Martin’s Precision
Strike Missile has the U.S. military investing billions to update its
arsenal.
But a close look at what is believed to be its first use in combat — on
the first day of the Iran war — highlights the potential peril of
deploying this weapon near population centers because it appears to
spray pellets over a wide area, according to a review by the conflict
monitor Airwars and interviews with weapons experts and former defense
officials.
Three missiles that struck the southern city of Lamerd on Feb. 28 killed
civilians as far as 50 meters (164 feet) from where they detonated, and
caused damage more than three times farther away, Airwars found. The
missiles detonated above a sports complex and two residential
neighborhoods, Airwars found. The blasts killed at least 21 civilians,
including seven children, according to Iranian officials.
Airwars is the first to map the damage radius of the strikes in Lamerd
and estimate the lethal range of the weapon used.
The PrSM is designed to explode midair and propel tens of thousands of
dense metal pellets at high speed in all directions. Photos, videos and
satellite images of the Lamerd strikes’ aftermath analyzed by Airwars
and verified by The Associated Press show buildings, streets and
vehicles were heavily pockmarked in a blast pattern that experts say is
consistent with the PrSM's capabilities.
The U.S. military has confirmed firing PrSMs into Iran, but has denied
attacking Lamerd.
It is unclear who or what was the intended target in Lamerd. An Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps compound is located nearby, but satellite
images showed no damage there.
Six weapons experts, including two who are former military officials,
told AP they believe PrSMs struck Lamerd — and they said it was unlikely
that Israeli or Iranian weapons were used. All said militaries should
avoid firing the PrSM at targets near civilian areas.
“You would be hard-pressed to find a reason to use the PrSM in a densely
populated area,” said Michael Meier, a former U.S. Army adviser on the
laws of war.
How Airwars reached its conclusions
Airwars, a London-based nonprofit, was founded more than a decade ago to
track reports of civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes in Syria and Iraq,
and it has also monitored conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and elsewhere. It
relies on publicly available material, such as photos, videos, satellite
images, social media and news reports, and uses geolocation software and
other tools to help it analyze this evidence.
Airwars used these methods to investigate the strikes on Lamerd. It
mapped the approximate locations of the missiles' detonations, where
civilians were reported killed and where damage was visible and
consistent with blast patterns. It then measured the distances between
the positions to estimate the blast radius.
AP verified Airwars' blast radius estimate by measuring the distance
between where civilians were killed, based on Iranian media reports, and
where the missiles detonated midair, based on security camera and other
videos. AP also examined satellite images, photos and videos of damage
from the attack sites.
Lockheed Martin, which did not respond to a request for comment, has not
said how wide the missile's impact is. It has released an animated video
modeling a PrSM blast.
US touted use of PrSMs in Iran, but denied attacking Lamerd
In a post to X on March 1, the day after Lamerd was struck, U.S. Central
Command included what munitions experts say was an image of the PrSM
being fired during the Iran operation. Three days later, it touted that
PrSMs — in a “historic first” — had been used in Iran, though not where.
Several weeks later, as reports about the strikes in Lamerd garnered
media attention, a spokesperson for Central Command said in a statement
that U.S. forces did not launch PrSMs or any weapons into Lamerd on Feb.
28, and that they do not target civilians. The spokesperson said footage
of one of the strikes suggested it was an Iranian Hoveyzeh cruise
missile.
Weapons experts said a missile seen in security camera video from Lamerd
does not match that Iranian model, which has a rounded engine.
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A damaged car sits beside a wall bearing numerous impact marks near
the site of a strike in Lamerd, southern Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28,
2026. (Alireza Ameri/Tasnim News Agency via AP)
The Israeli military told AP it did not strike anywhere in Iran as
far south as Lamerd on the first day of the war, and experts said
Israel’s military is not known to have missiles that detonate
midair.
When asked about Airwars’ and AP’s findings, U.S. Central Command
reiterated its denial of responsibility, saying that was based on an
earlier review of what happened there. Its commander, Adm. Brad
Cooper, also told Congress in May that they were only investigating
one case of U.S. fire killing civilians — a strike on an Iranian
school in Minab.
What the PrSM is meant to do
The new missiles are meant to replace the Army Tactical Missile
System used for decades, according to the U.S. military.
While the ATACMS can travel approximately 300 kilometers (186
miles), the PrSM can hit targets over 499 kilometers (310 miles)
away, Lockheed Martin says.
The PrSM differs from its predecessor in another key way. Where
ATACMS shatter into steel fragments or small bomblets over their
target area, an exploding PrSM fires tens of thousands of pellets
made of tungsten in all directions, Airwars and weapons experts say.
Because of tungsten's high density and melting point, the pellets
retain their shape after detonation. That makes them extremely
lethal, capable of piercing soft armor, according to defense
journals.
Missiles in Lamerd caused damage far from where they exploded
Airwars found footage of a school in Lamerd that was damaged by the
missile detonated over the Shahid Naimi Sports Hall about 170 meters
(557 feet) away.
That blast killed seven civilians, mostly children, Iranian state
media reported. Airwars says it used open-source material to confirm
the deaths. Among them were three teenage girls playing volleyball
and a woman smoking a hookah in front of her house.
A separate blast over the Tal-e Khandagh neighborhood killed
2-year-old Avina Barzegar, who was playing in her yard. Airwars
estimates the pellet that struck Barzegar traveled 50 meters from
the blast site. It reached that conclusion by geolocating her house,
based on a video showing its front gate, and measuring the distance
from the house to the site.
Neither Airwars nor AP could find any reports indicating that
military or security personnel were killed in the strikes, or that
military infrastructure was hit.
The US, UK and Australia are committed to buying more PrSMs
Since the Lamerd strikes, the Pentagon signed a contract worth over
$4 billion with Lockheed Martin to quadruple PrSM production. The
U.K. said in June it had set aside 130 million pounds ($177 million)
to procure the weapon. Australia bought the missiles in 2025 and in
April invested billions of dollars into the PrSM program.
Weapons experts say the PrSM provides valuable new capabilities, but
it should be used carefully.
“Its proper use should be reserved for things like large
concentrations of enemy personnel with hard and soft armor,” said
Wes Bryant, a former Pentagon adviser on precision warfare and
civilian harm mitigation.
Trevor Ball, a former explosives expert for the U.S. Army, also
urged caution.
“It will kill people outside their homes who aren't protected by
walls,” he said.
___
Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Collin Binkley in
Washington contributed.
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