Iran launches production of home-made UAV
Iran has started a large-scale manufacturing of its indigenous
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Shahed 129, IRIB news agency
reported.
Shahed 129, which was developed by the Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC) and unveiled in September 2012, can carry out combat
and reconnaissance missions with its 24-hour nonstop flight
capability.
The UAV is said to be able to carry Sadid-1 missiles, making it
Iran's second weapons capable UAV after Karrar.
Meanwhile, IRGC Chief Major General Mohammad-Ali Ja'fari said that
Iran has produced its own clone of RQ-170 UAV using reverse
engineering technology.
The RQ-170 Sentinel is an UAV whose existence was first revealed by
the US Air Force in December 2009. It is about 26 meters in
wingspan, 4.5 meters in length and 1.84 meters in height. RQ-170 is
believed to be a stealth aircraft fitted with reconnaissance
equipment.
In December 2011, an American RQ-170 UAV was captured by Iranian
forces near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran. The Iranian
government announced that the UAV was brought down by its
cyberwarfare unit which commandeered the aircraft and safely landed
it, after initial reports from Western news sources inaccurately
claimed that it had been shot down.
In recent years, Iran states that it has reached self-sufficiency
in essential military hardware and defense systems.
Tehran established an arms development programme during the
Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s to counter the weapons embargo imposed
on it by the US and its Western allies.
Since 1992, Iran has manufactured its own tanks, armored personnel
carriers, missiles, radars, boats, submarines and fighter
planes.