hypersonic

A contract the U.S. Navy recently awarded to defense startup Castelion may point to its pursuit of a new, lower-cost, air-launched hypersonic strike weapon. The service has something of a gap to fill now after halting plans for an air-launched, air-breathing hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile roughly a year ago, due to cost and industrial base factors. A version of Castelion’s Blackbeard hypersonic missile could also find its way onto Navy ships and submarines, as well as ground-based launchers.

Last Friday, Castelion announced that it had received contracts from the Navy, as well as the U.S. Army, for “integration” of Blackbeard onto unspecified “operational platforms.” TWZ has reached out to the Navy for more information. The Army has already made clear it is interested in employing Blackbeard in a ground-launched mode, as you can read more about here.

“Under these agreements, Castelion will work with both services to integrate the hypersonic Blackbeard weapon system onto operational platforms and demonstrate its capabilities in live-fire tests – advancing the Department of War’s effort to evaluate and accelerate new, cost-effective strike capabilities for conventional deterrence,” according to a company press release. “Blackbeard is Castelion’s first long-range, hypersonic strike weapon, designed for mass production and rapid fielding once integration and testing are complete. The system leverages vertically integrated propulsion and guidance subsystems to achieve performance at a fraction of the cost of legacy weapons – supporting the Department’s objective of building credible, non-nuclear deterrent capacity at scale.”

Many questions remain about the expected final design and capabilities of the Blackbeard missile, including whether or not it will feature some form of air-breathing propulsion. The full “weapon system” could also incorporate multiple designs. Castelion has already conducted numerous live-fire launches using different test articles.

The designs seen in testing to date “are representative of the low-cost internally developed test vehicles we use to enable rapid subsystem design iteration and to ground our performance models in real-world test data,” Castelion told TWZ back in June. “Castelion’s approach to development focuses on getting into hardware-in-the-loop and flight testing early in development to support learning cycles across design, production, and test. As such, flight vehicles shown on social media are not representative nor intended to be representative of our final weapon systems.”

As TWZ has noted in the past, the term “hypersonic missile” typically refers to weapons designed for sustained hypersonic speed across a relatively shallow and even maneuvering trajectory. This can include designs that use a ballistic missile-like booster to loft an unpowered glide vehicle to a desired velocity and altitude before releasing it toward its target, as well as air-breathing cruise missiles capable of traveling at hypersonic speeds. Hypersonic speed is generally defined as anything above Mach 5, which larger ballistic missiles do reach in the course of their flights.

The testing that Castelion has disclosed so far has also been centered on the employment of Blackbeard in the ground-launched mode, which is fully in line with what is known about the Army’s plans for the weapon. The Navy could have a similar eye toward surface (or sub-surface) launch modes from ships, submarines, or even launchers on the ground.

At the same time, there are indications that the Navy is pursuing Blackbeard, at least in part, as an air-launched weapon. In February 2024, Castelion received a contract from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), valued at just under $3 million, to “perform an initial trade study to identify cost, schedule, and performance estimates of producing an air-launched anti-surface weapon and shipping system not to exceed 212″ in length with an on-aircraft weight limit of 2,750 lbs. and an air-to-air weapon with not-to-exceed dimensions of 7″ diameter x 144″ long with production quantity of >200 no later than 2027 for both weapons.”

Whether or not the air-to-air weapon design mentioned here is part of the larger work Castelion is doing on Blackbeard, or a separate project, is unknown. The company has previously said that it was aiming to have a more finalized Blackbeard design by 2027.

This is not the first time that work on an air-launched variation of Blackbeard has come up, either. In its 2026 Fiscal Year budget request, the Army said that the ground-launched version of the weapon that it expects to receive will leverage an “existing air-launched, extended-range Blackbeard design,” but did not elaborate. TWZ has reached out to the Army for more information in the past.

As noted, the Navy has had a stated requirement for an air-launched hypersonic anti-surface warfare capability for years now. Starting in 2021, the service had been pursuing an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile to meet that need through a program called Hypersonic Air-Launched Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (HALO). Raytheon and Lockheed Martin had been working on competing designs.

The Navy had hoped to begin fielding HALO before the end of the decade. However, in late 2024, the service scrapped plans to move the program to the next phase of development.

“The Navy cancelled the solicitation for the Hypersonic Air-Launched Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (HALO) Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) effort in fall 2024 due to budgetary constraints that prevent fielding new capability within the planned delivery schedule,” Navy Capt. Ron Flanders, a service spokesperson, told TWZ in April of this year. “The decision was made after the Navy conducted a careful analysis, looking at cost trends and program performance across the munitions industrial base compared to the Navy’s priorities and existing fiscal commitments.”

“We are working closely with our resource sponsors to revalidate the requirements, with an emphasis on affordability,” Flanders added at that time. “The Navy is committed to its investment in Long Range Fires to meet National Defense objectives, with priority emphasis on fielding continued capability improvements to the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM).”

Castelion’s focus on lower-cost and producibility for Blackbeard, coupled with the schedule it is targeting for development of the missile, all align with the Navy’s stated post-HALO plans. The service had previously described HALO as a critical capability, especially in the context of future high-end fighting, such as one in the Pacific against China.

The Navy could well be looking at multiple options to meet this ongoing requirement for a new, air-launched, high-speed, anti-ship weapon. The service is already fielding an air-launched version of the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6), called the AIM-174B, ostensibly in the anti-air role. However, in its surface-launched form, the SM-6 also has an anti-ship capability, and the AIM-174B could be used in that role, as well.

As mentioned, the Navy could still pursue other versions of Blackbeard beyond an air-launched type. Previously stated plans for HALO also included the eventual development of variants that could be fired from ships and submarines.

Other services could be interested in air-launched variations of Blackbeard, as well. The U.S. Air Force has also awarded Castelion contracts in the past in relation to long-range strike weapon concepts, and TWZ has previously reached out to that service for more information.

All of this is also heavily contingent on Castelion meeting its schedule, cost, and other goals for Blackbeard. The Army’s budget documents show it is pursuing Blackbeard aggressively, but through a phased approach that offers multiple off-ramps.

Castelion has certainly received a new vote of confidence on Blackbeard, regardless of launch modes, with the new integration contracts from the Navy and the Army.

Contact the author: [email protected]

SEOUL, Oct. 23 (UPI) — North Korea successfully tested a “new cutting-edge weapons system” involving hypersonic missiles, state-run media reported Thursday, amid heightened regional tensions ahead of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.

Two hypersonic projectiles were launched in a northeast direction from the Pyongyang area and hit targets on a plateau of Kwesang Peak in Orang County, North Kamgyong Province, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

“The new weapon system was tested as part of the defense capability development program to enhance the sustainability and effectiveness of strategic deterrence against potential enemies,” KCNA said.

The test, held Wednesday, was overseen by a delegation of officials led by Pak Jong Chon, secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not present at the test.

“The new cutting-edge weapon system is a clear proof of steadily upgrading self-defensive technical capabilities of the DPRK,” Pak said, according to KCNA.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

Seoul’s military on Wednesday said that it detected the launch of several short-range ballistic missiles, which flew for roughly 217 miles before falling on land.

U.S. Forces Korea denounced the North’s launches and its “relentless pursuit of long-range missile capabilities,” acts that are prohibited by U.N. Security Council resolutions.

“The United States condemns these unlawful and destabilizing actions, and we call on the DPRK to refrain from further acts in violation of the UNSCR,” USFK said in a statement.

The launch was North Korea’s fifth of the year, and the first since South Korean President Lee Jae Myung took office in June. Lee has made efforts to improve relations between the two Koreas, with conciliatory gestures such as removing propaganda loudspeakers from border areas.

The missile test comes ahead of South Korea’s hosting of the APEC summit in Gyeongju on Oct. 30-Nov. 1. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to visit Gyeongju before the official summit for bilateral meetings with leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea’s Lee.

Analysts had speculated that the North may conduct a provocation ahead of the event as Pyongyang continues its push to be recognized as a nuclear-armed state.

The regime unveiled its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-20, at a massive military parade earlier this month. The ICBM, which North Korean state media called the regime’s “most powerful nuclear strategic weapon,” is a solid-fuel missile believed capable of reaching the continental United States.

Hypersonic weapons, meanwhile, travel at least five times the speed of sound and are maneuverable mid-flight, making them a challenge for missile detection and interception systems.

North Korea has unveiled what it says is a new hypersonic missile dubbed Hwasong-11Ma, designed to be fired from a 10-wheeled transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) that can carry two of the weapons at once. Derived from the earlier Hwasong-11 series of short-range ballistic missiles, the Ma variation has an unpowered boost-glide vehicle on top instead of a traditional warhead and, as a result, is designed to function in a completely different manner.

The Hwasong-11Ma, or a mockup thereof, was among the weapon systems showcased at what has become an annual exhibition of the North Korean military’s latest capabilities this past weekend. Another hypersonic missile design, the Hwasong-8, was a prominent feature at the first of these events in 2021.

The original Hwasong-11, also known as the KN-23 in the West, is a traditional short-range ballistic missile that can reach out to 430 miles (690 kilometers) and has a 1,000-pound (500-kilogram) class unitary high-explosive warhead. First shown publicly back in 2018, it is now a combat-proven weapon, as well. Russia has been employing them against targets in Ukraine since December 2023. Several other Hwasong-11 variations have already emerged in recent years.

Details about the Hwasong-11Ma, also referred to as the Hwasong-11E, are still limited. From the size and shape of the main body, the new missile looks to be based more directly on the previous Hwasong-11Da/Hwasong-11C version. This would make sense as the Da/C, another traditional short-range ballistic missile, is already an enlarged derivative designed to carry larger warheads than the original Hwasong-11. North Korea has previously said it has tested subvariants of the Da/C type with 2.5-ton and 4.5-ton conventional high-explosive warheads, and that it can also be fitted with a nuclear warhead.

In line with its apparent size, Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E looks to use a similar, if not identical, 10-wheeled TEL as the Hwasong-11Da/Hwasong-11C. The original Hwasong-11 is fired from an eight-wheeled TEL.

The Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E’s boost-glide vehicle is similar, in broad strokes, to other wedge-shaped types that North Korea has shown in the past as payloads for much larger missiles. However, the previously seen designs have distinctly different tail fin configurations from the one on the newly unveiled missile, which also has two long strakes extending on either side from the nose.

In general, hypersonic boost-glide vehicles are unpowered and use ballistic missile-like rocket boosters to get them first to an optimal altitude and speed. They then detach from the booster and follow a relatively shallow, atmospheric flight path at hypersonic speeds, defined as anything above Mach 5, to their targets. Boost-glide vehicles are also designed to be able to maneuver erratically along the way. All of this creates significant challenges for defending forces to detect and track the incoming threat, let alone attempt any kind of intercept.

How close the Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E might be to becoming an operational capability is unknown. North Korea claims to have flight-tested multiple hypersonic boost-glide vehicle designs since at least 2021, but there continue to be questions about what degree of actual capability the country has achieved in this regard. Viable wedge-shaped boost-glide vehicles have historically been extremely difficult to design and then bring to an operational state. It is possible, if not very plausible, that North Korea has and continues to receive assistance in the development of hypersonic weapons from Russia and/or China. The Russian and Chinese armed forces have both fielded hypersonic boost-glide weapons with wedge-shaped vehicles. Russia has used military and other technology transfers of various kinds as part of its ‘payments’ to North Korea in exchange for the latter’s now direct involvement in the war in Ukraine.

The North Korean regime’s pursuit of hypersonic capabilities is certainly real and is a clear response to efforts by the South Koreans and their U.S. allies to expand air and missile defenses. The original Hwasong-11, which is very similar in form and function to the Russian Iskander-M and the South Korean Hyunmoo-2 series, itself is reportedly capable of performing a “pull-up” maneuver in its terminal phase of flight to complicate attempts to intercept it.

In principle, Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11Es could offer North Korea a useful additional layer of hypersonic strike capability for use against better-protected targets inside South Korea. Road-mobile TELs would offer additional flexibility, even if the missiles are relatively short-ranged, as well as a way to create complications for opponents trying to find and fix their locations.

“As the U.S. military buildup in the South Korean region intensifies, our strategic interest in the area has also increased. Therefore, we have allocated our special assets to key targets of interest accordingly,” Kim Jong Un said, speaking generally, during remarks at the opening of the weapons exhibition in Pyongyang, according to state media. “Can the South Korean territory ever be considered a safe place? That is for them to judge.”

The Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E’s development may also reflect lessons learned from Russia’s use of Hwasong-11s in Ukraine. The missile’s initial performance in the war was dismal, but Ukrainian officials have made clear that the Russians and North Koreans subsequently took corrective actions and that it is now a very threatening weapon. Earlier this year, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat also mentioned both the Iskander-M and the KN-23 while openly discussing how the Russians had made further improvements to their ballistic missile capabilities that have put serious pressure on the country’s air defenses.

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), via an unclassified Special Inspector General report published in August, confirmed “the UAF [Ukrainian Air Force] struggled to consistently use Patriot air defense systems to protect against Russian ballistic missiles due to recent Russian tactical improvements, including enhancements that enable their missiles to change trajectory and perform maneuvers rather than flying in a traditional ballistic trajectory,” something that TWZ was first to report. The Special Inspector General’s report does not name the ballistic missiles that have proven challenging, but the Iskander-M and the KN-23 are understood to be, by far, the types Russia most commonly employs in strikes on Ukraine.

Last week, the Financial Times newspaper in the United Kingdom reported that Russia’s improvements to its ballistic missile capabilities may have notably helped them evade Ukrainian defenses in attacks on at least four drone production facilities this past summer, citing unnamed U.S. and Ukrainian officials.

As it stands now, U.S.-made Patriots are the only air defense systems in Ukraine’s inventory that offer real anti-ballistic missile capability, and then only in the terminal phase. Ukraine’s Patriots are in high demand, in general.

The Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E also simply underscores the still-growing scale and scope of North Korea’s missile arsenal, overall, when it comes to ballistic and cruise, as well as hypersonic types. As already noted, the Hwasong-11 series has already become particularly prolific, with rail, silo, and submarine-launched variants and derivatives having been demonstrated, in addition to ones fired from wheeled TELs.

It is often the case that North Korea follows up the public debut of new missiles with equally public tests, and more details about at least the Hwasong-11Ma/Hwasong-11E’s claimed capabilities may now begin to emerge.

Contact the author: [email protected]

The U.S. Air Force is working to combine an aerial target designed to simulate ballistic threats and a liquid-fuel rocket motor into a new, lower-cost hypersonic missile dubbed Angry Tortoise. The first test launch of the experimental design is expected to come by the end of the year. The project reflects growing interest across the U.S. military in pursuing new avenues to field hypersonic weapons, and to do so affordably, after years of persistent struggles in this realm.

Angry Tortoise broke cover at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2025 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference earlier this week, at which TWZ was in attendance. Aerospace firm Usra Major has confirmed to us that a contract it received from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in May, valued at close to $28.6 million, is for this particular effort. Neither the project’s name nor its explicit focus was disclosed at the time, though the expected end result was described as a “tactical flight demonstrator.”

The Angry Tortoise project “works by leveraging partnerships with commercial companies to integrate their existing technologies into Department of War (DoW) weapon systems, enabling rapid delivery of new capabilities,” according to an information card AFRL had available at the conference this week. “The integrated advancements made through the Angry Tortoise project will provide the warfighter with the ability to deliver quick, precise strikes on both stationary and moving targets, giving military commanders more options to counter threats. The project’s focus on public-private partnerships is crucial to accelerating the delivery of these new capabilities by combining commercial innovation with AFRL’s technical expertise and resources.”

The key element of the current Angry Tortoise design is the 4,000-pound-thrust-class Draper rocket motor, a closed-cycle hydrogen peroxide-kerosene design. Despite being liquid-fueled, Draper can be stored for extended periods of time at room temperature. Most commonly used liquid rocket fuels are volatile and corrosive, which limits how long rocket motors that use them can be left ready-to-fire. This also typically makes them more hazardous to handle after being fueled. This has long made more stable solid-fuel rocket motors attractive for military applications, especially when it comes to tactical weapons, despite the performance advantages liquid-fueled types offer.

Usra Major describes Draper as a “tactical” derivative of an earlier design called Hadley, which uses a more traditional fuel mixture with liquid oxygen as its oxidizer. Hadley is notably the rocket motor that powers Stratolauch’s Talon-A hypersonic test vehicle. Usra Major developed both Hadley and Draper in cooperation with AFRL. The origins of Angry Tortoise lie in these developments.

“It started off as, they had an application [for the rocket motor work] for space access applications,” John Remen, the strategic engagement lead for AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate, told TWZ correspondent Hope Hodge Seck in an interview on the floor of this week’s conference. “We were challenged to look at, hey, we want to change this paradigm in hypersonics and affordable mass, to be able to put more mass on target at low cost, effectively, and so forth. What ideas do you guys have that can do this?”

“And we were, like, hey, you know, this is right in the right thrust class,” he continued. “This is the right size, it’s additively manufactured, low-cost. And so, hey, let’s brainstorm. What could we do in terms of a quick demonstration to show some kind of a tactical missile application?”

Angry Tortoise combines Draper with the front half of an existing rocket called the Economical Target-2 (ET-2), produced by Teledyne Brown, according to an earlier story from Avaition Week. Standard ET-2s, which the U.S. military currently uses to simulate ballistic missiles as part of test and evaluation activities, use solid-fuel rocket motors.

“So, what we’re doing is basically taking the back half of it [off], and had to use a new outer shell and everything, because we now have liquid propellant tanks on the inside, the thrust take-out for the engine, and so forth,” AFRL’s Remen explained.

AFRL and Ursa Major are now aiming to launch Angry Tortoise for the first time at the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico in December. The Draper rocket motor has already been hot-fired more than 300 times in ground-based testing.

The expectation is that the missile will be able to reach speeds of up to around Mach 4 or Mach 5, with Mach 5 typically considered to be the boundary between high-supersonic and hypersonic speed. Angry Tortoise is only expected to reach around Mach 2 during its first test flight due in part to the physical limitations of WSMR. Though WSMR is a sprawling range complex, hypersonic systems can fly so far so fast that they often ‘out-range’ even larger facilities on land.

“In 2026, we’re going to fly that system long-range in the Pacific,” Dan Jablonsky, Ursa Major’s CEO, said at the opening to a separate panel at the Air, Space, and Cyber Conference.

In terms of the Angry Tortoise project’s immediate goals, it is important to stress that it is presently a science and technology demonstration effort. At the same time, there is a clear eye toward seeing if this is a viable pathway to an operational weapon, and one that could be readily produced at scale at a reasonable price point.

AFRL is hoping to prove out “the performance, the capability, range capabilities, and so forth, just the fact that we can do a low-cost, quick manufacturer [design]. Like I said, it’s additively manufactured, so that speeds up the processes and so forth. You can actually just add a bunch of more machines on the line to put out more systems,” AFRL’s Remen said. For the “space application, might need 20 a year or 30 a year. But the DoD says, hey, no, I need 300 a year. Okay. How can I get that spun up?”

“It’s all TBD of okay, yeah, it was successful, what are we going to do with it from a military standpoint?” he continued. “Our job is to define and help them, help [Air Force] leadership, understand, here’s the art of the possible.”

Remen said that multiple unspecified commands had expressed interest in Angry Tortoise and the capabilities that could be gained from the project. He also noted that the design could well further evolve and that future iterations might be significantly different, including using solid-fuel rocket motors. As an AFRL project, one would imagine the service is eyeing this as a starting place for an air-launched weapon, but it might be adaptable to ground and/or sea-launched modes, as well.

In terms then of unit price, “it’s really going to go to what are you trying to do, and … what do you consider as a reasonable cost?” he added. “You know, we have a warfighting mission, so I’ve got to win the war. Sometimes it doesn’t necessarily matter how much it costs, because I’ve got to win the war, because losing the war is far more costly than it is to win the war.”

“At approx. 60% additively manufactured, Draper costs significantly less than other hypersonic propulsion alternatives,” Ursa Major also told TWZ in response to queries for more information.

At the same time, Angry Tortoise reflects a frustration with the current state of U.S. hyperosonic weapons development and their costs. “The project’s moniker jokingly references the Air Force’s struggle to keep up with international competitors in the affordable hypersonic missile field,” Aviation Week reported, citing Nils Sedano, a technical advisor in the Space Access Branch of AFRL’s Rocket Propulsion Division.

“I mean, you got your hypersonic missiles, like your HAWCs and so forth, 10s of millions of dollars and such [each],” AFRL’s Remen said. “We’re trying to be a lot lower cost in that, but it also may not be as capable.”

HAWC is the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, a project the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency conducted in cooperation with AFRL, which has fed into the Air Force’s current Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) program. HACM, an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile, is expected to fly in the upcoming fiscal year after suffering delays.

In its latest budget proposal for the 2026 Fiscal Year, the Air Force confirmed plans to reboot work on the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), which the service had previously moved to shelve following years of checkered test results. The stated plan had been to refocus resources on HACM. ARRW is in a different category of hypersonic weapon from HACM, and is designed to launch an unpowered hypersonic boost-glide vehicle, as you can learn more about here.

U.S. Army and U.S. Navy hypersonic weapons plans have suffered their own significant setbacks in recent years.

The Navy revealed earlier this year that it had halted work entirely on its Hypersonic Air-Launched Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (HALO) program, another air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile effort, in late 2024. The service blamed “budgetary constraints” and said it would “revalidate the requirements, with an emphasis on affordability.”

The Army also now has its own program, called Blackbeard, geared explicitly toward accelerating the development, and hopefully fielding, of a lower-cost hypersonic missile.

All of this comes as China, in particular, is at least investing heavily in expanding its arsenal of multiple categories of hypersonic weapons. A number of new designs broke cover ahead of a huge military parade in Beijing on September 3, as you can read more about in TWZ past reporting here.

Russia’s Zircon sea-launched hypersonic air-breathing cruise missile has also now been demonstrated in combat in Ukraine. Russian forces have also used Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles, which reach hypersonic speeds in the terminal phase of flight, in strikes on Ukrainian targets.

“As Secretary [of the Air Force Troy] Meink emphasized on Monday, we have to innovate faster,” Ursa Major’s CEO Jablonsky said at the panel this week. “The only way we’re going to be able to maintain our advantage is to innovate, and we have to innovate faster than our adversaries. As we think about the current threat environment, our own arsenal, our own strategic capabilities, we must face the reality that our adversaries are moving faster than we are.”

Ursa Major and AFRL are now presenting Angry Tortoise as one way to try to help change that paradigm.

Contact the author: [email protected]

June 17 (UPI) — Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is an “easy target,” and Iran should surrender unconditionally, President Donald Trump said Tuesday before Iran’s leader countered with his own warning, “the battle begins.”

As Iran fired two hypersonic missile barrages into Israel on Tuesday night, Khamenei wrote in a post on X, “In the name of the noble Haidar, the battle begins,” along with an image of fire raining down on an ancient city.

In a separate X account, he wrote in English, “We must give a strong response to the terrorist Zionist regime. We will show the Zionists no mercy.”

There were no injuries reported in Iran’s attacks, as Israel Defense Forces issued an evacuation order before a new wave of airstrikes in Tehran.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump urged Khamenei to surrender.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“He is an easy target but is safe there — we are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump continued.

“But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians or American soldiers,” he said, adding, “Our patience is wearing thin.”

In a subsequent post, Trump simply stated, “Unconditional surrender!” in all capital letters.

Trump said he hasn’t reached out to Iranian leaders and isn’t “in the mood” to negotiate with them, ABC News reported.

He said Israel has “complete and total control of the skies over Iran” due to “American-made, conceived and manufactured” arms.

Trump posted his comments after Israeli and Iranian forces continued exchanging aerial assaults during the fifth day of the active war between the two nations.

The president met with military advisers shortly after returning early from the G7 conference in Canada on Tuesday due to the situation in the Middle East.

Israeli forces are targeting ballistic missile launch sites and command centers in central Iran.

“We’ve struck deep, hitting Iran’s nuclear ballistic capabilities,” Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

“We have delivered significant blows to the Iranian regime, and as such, they have been pushed back into central Iran,” the IDF statement says.

“They are now focusing their efforts on conducting missile fire from the area of Isfahan.”

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have issued warnings to civilians in Tel Aviv and Haifa to evacuate because they are targeted for a “punitive operation.”

“The operations carried out so far have merely been warnings for deterrence,” Iran’s commander-in-chief Abdolrahim Mousavi said on Tuesday. “A punitive operation will be executed soon.”

He referred to the Israeli cities as “occupied territories” and said residents should leave them “for their own safety and not to become victims of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s barbaric actions.”

The U.S. embassy in Israel announced it will close Wednesday for three days due to the escalating conflict.

“As a result of the current security situation and ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, the U.S. Embassy has directed that all U.S. government employees and their family members continue to shelter in place and near their residences until further notice.”

The embassy, located in Jerusalem, said it had no information to assist private U.S. citizens who want to leave the country, adding that Israel’s largest airport, Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, is closed.