Iran's Air Defense Unit has designed and built drones to fight and hunt enemies' Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with reconnaissance or bombing missions, a top military official announced on Sunday, February 16, 2014. “Different drones are being designed and built in Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base, including Sarir (long-range, long-endurance radar-evading air defense) drone, whose production has gifted us very good progress,” said Commander of Iran's Air Defense Unit Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli.
Elaborating on the mission of these drones, the General said these pilotless aircraft are used in the base for training forces in detecting, targeting and fighting enemy drones.
Iran has recently made giant advancements in aerospace industries, specially in designing and manufacturing pilotless drones.
In relevant remarks in December, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said the IRGC is capable of mounting guided missiles and bombs on its drones.
“We have recently acquired the capability to mount guided and precision-targeting missiles with pinpointing capability and bombs on drones, which is actually among branches of advanced hi-tech in this field,” Jafari told reporters in Tehran.
He referred to Iran’s latest achievements in building drones, and said, “Our latest achievement in this regard is a drone which can fly for 30 hours and high-speed engines can increase its range.”
Also in November, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan announced that Iran's new drone enjoys unique strategic capabilities, including 30-hour-long flight durability, and has been developed for combat and surveillance missions.
Dehqan said the new drone, ‘Fotros’, has been designed and built by the Iranian Airplane Manufacturing Industries Company affiliated to the Defense Ministry’s Aviation Industries in cooperation with knowledge-based companies and academic centers and on the basis of the needs of the country’s Armed Forces.
“This strategic drone has an operational range of 2,000 kilometers, and can fly to a ceiling of 25,000 feet in altitude for 16 to 30 hours, and these specifications enable it to conduct combat missions in addition to surveillance and reconnaissance missions," Dehqan said addressing a ceremony held in Tehran to unveil the new drone.
The minister said Fotros can be armed with various types of "air-to-surface missiles and rockets".
He underlined that the reliability test of the drone has been successfully conducted in the country’s laboratories and test centers, including standard international land tests at low, medium and high speed, adding that test results have been even better than what was expected.
He underlined that the reliability test of the drone has been successfully conducted in the country’s laboratories and test centers, including standard international land tests at low, medium and high speed, adding that test results have been even better than what was expected.
The minister further pointed to the missions which could be done by Fotros in detail, and said the drone can be used for “protecting land and sea borders, monitoring oil pipelines, telecommunication lines and road traffic control, monitoring affected areas during earthquakes, blaze and floods, and environment protection", adding that it can send "real-time photos and images while it is on a missions".http://www.armyrecognition.com/
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