Iran Launches First Long-Range UCAV

mysterious

New Member
Iran Unveils Long - Range Drone to Counter "Aggressors"


TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran unveiled a prototype long-range unmanned bomber on Sunday, the latest in a stream of announcements of new Iranian-made military hardware as tension mounts over its nuclear program.

On a stage in front of military officials, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pulled a sheet away from the aircraft, called the Karrar, which Iran says is its first long-range drone.

With the United States and Israel saying they do not rule out a military strike to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb, the Islamic Republic has showed off new mini-submarines, a surface-to-surface missile and announced plans to launch high altitude satellites over the next three years.

The presentation of the drone came a day after Iranian and Russian technicians began fuelling Iran's first nuclear power station, something Israel called "totally unacceptable."

In a speech at the unveiling ceremony, Ahmadinejad said Iran should seek the ability to make pre-emptive strikes against a perceived threat, although he said it would never strike first.

"If there is an ignorant person or an egoist or a tyrant who just wanted to make an aggression then our Defence Ministry should reach a point where it could cut off the hand of the aggressor before it decided to make an aggression," he said.

"We should reach a point when Iran would serve as a defence umbrella for all freedom loving nations in the face of world aggressors. We don't want to attack anywhere, Iran will never decide to attack anywhere, but our revolution cannot sit idle in the face of tyranny, we can't remain indifferent."

The exact capabilities of the new drone were not disclosed.

Iran, which says its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, has warned that any strike against its nuclear sites would be countered by measures not restricted to the Middle East region. Ahmadinejad said on Saturday an attack on Iran would be "suicidal."

Iran has said it is prepared to return to talks with major world powers but the exact nature of such negotiations has yet to be defined. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week Iran would not talk to the United States unless sanctions and military threats were lifted.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/08/22/world/international-uk-iran-military-drone.html


The pictures I'm about to post here leave me in a mixed state of emotions really... Is this thing for real? This could potentially be a major headache for a lot of countries in the region - least of all Israel..
 

mysterious

New Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3
And some more pics.. Doesn't seem to strike me as a resemblance of either the Predator or the Reaper. Could be more like a modified missile from the line-up that Iran has currently. Would definitely like to hear what the experts here have to say on this though..
 

mysterious

New Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4
As seen in some pictures, looks like full-scale mass production has already commenced. Could someone also check to see if some of the pictures may have been doctored, especially the ones that show this 'ucav' in flight..?
 

BK101

New Member
What a very expensive way to deliver 1 dumb bomb. That thing would be shot down very quickly in my opinion.
 

justone

Banned Member
It reminds me of a cruise missile. Looking at the picture its not going to go to far maybe to Iraq thats it. What is purpose of the Iranian bring this up? It sound like they trying to scared anyone who trying to attack them. It don't make sense.
 

Todjaeger

Potstirrer
In the pictures shown so far, the layout does rather closely resemble that of a cruise missile far more than some form of unmanned aerial vehicle. One thing which I think is rather interesting to note, is that the 'UCAV' is jet-powered, yet appears to have not form of landing or recovery system. While I could be mistaken, but my understanding of a UCAV was that it was an unmanned combat aerial vehicle which could/would be sent on missions where it was not practical or too dangerous to send a manned vehicle, but if possible the UCAV would return from the mission and be re-used/deployed.

By not including any sort of landing gear or landing/arresting system, it makes one think that the Iranian 'UCAV' is a one-shot aerial vehicle. In short, a cruise missile. The only possibly novel feature is that it can (or has to) drop a bomb to strike a target. I only hope that the Iranian leadership is truly aware of just how outclassed the weapons systems being introduced into Iran really are, so that the leadership is not tempted into using them.

-Cheers
 

Sampanviking

Banned Member
A parachute is lighter than landing gear and a swarm of such drones would be a nightmare for hostile shipping in the Persian Gulf.
 

kato

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
the 'UCAV' is jet-powered, yet appears to have not form of landing or recovery system.
Pretty much all drones smaller than a Predator (and a Predator is HUGE) do not have any landing gear. That drone looks about the size of (and remotely resembles) a CL289, maybe a bit larger. I'm gonna bet on a unit cost below 250 grand.

As for shooting them down... the German drone battery doing recon during the Kosovo War lost only four CL289 to hostile fire in well over a hundred sorties.
 

swerve

Super Moderator
Pretty much all drones smaller than a Predator (and a Predator is HUGE) do not have any landing gear. .
Now now, don't exaggerate. The following are smaller (some much smaller) than Predator, & all have landing gear -
Hermes 180
Hermes 450/WK450
Falco
Searcher I & II
Herti
RQ-2 Pioneer/Tadiran Mastiff
RQ-5 Hunter
RQ-7 Shadow
IAI Scout
Gnat 750
RuAG Ranger

And there are more.

But there are plenty of jet-powered UAVs without landing gear.
 

kato

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
The following are smaller (some much smaller) than Predator, & all have landing gear -
Ok, then lets exclude anything developed by IAI too. That's how many remaining off that list? BAe Herti, SELEX Falco and AAI Shadow? The Gnat 750 family containing the Predator (750-45) doesn't really count.

(Hermes, Gnat, Hunter, Pioneer, Ranger, Scout, Sercher = essentially all drones with heavy IAI input)
 

abiod

New Member
I think it is a modification of russian reconnaissance drone. Like Tu-141, Tu-143, Tu-123 and so on.
 

EXSSBN2005

New Member
Some of these pictures look like the x-jet cruise missle body that was on youtube, a guy in aus or NZ built it in his garage and then wrote a book about it, that was a pulse jet and had no guidance system and he never test fired the full scale model, the back ends look pretty close to the same and if some guy in a garage can do it, why couldnt a country that is full of garages and bunkers and weapon factories. In the last post of pictures 3rd one in it looks like a propane or some other type of liquid fuel is used. I'm no expert on missles but thats what it appears to be to me, if the back end of the air intake pops off they could put a chute in there, from a cost analysis they are cheap to make and if you have to fuel them just prior to launch then you wouldnt need that complex of a recovery system, depending on its computer brains I'm not sure I would want it flying back over my country once it dropped its bomb.
 
Last edited:

Todjaeger

Potstirrer
Pretty much all drones smaller than a Predator (and a Predator is HUGE) do not have any landing gear. That drone looks about the size of (and remotely resembles) a CL289, maybe a bit larger. I'm gonna bet on a unit cost below 250 grand.

As for shooting them down... the German drone battery doing recon during the Kosovo War lost only four CL289 to hostile fire in well over a hundred sorties.
The thought that a parachute recovery system might be included did occur to me, but can anyone name a UAV system that is in the approximate weight range/scale of this Iranian UCAV that makes use of one?

Appearance wise, it might resemble a CL289, but (at least according to Iranian claims) the capabilities make it significantly heavier and likely larger than a CL289.

A Karrar is also supposed to be able to carry a pair of 250 lb/113 kg bombs. These bombs together nearly weigh the MTO of a CL289, nevermind the actual weight and space required by the actual 'aerial vehicle' portion of the UCAV. Additionally, a CL289 was a drone which would be programmed to fly a particular course and the return and/or head to a landing and retrieval site. In munitions delivery capability, the Karrar is broadly similar to what a SLAM-ER can strike with by weight (500 lbs vs. ~488 lbs) but has approximately triple the range. Given that a SLAM-ER weighs ~630 kg, and does not have or need any mechanism to drop cruise missiles or bombs, or any form of recovery system, I would expect that the Karrar system weighs more than a SLAM-ER, which is itself ~twice the weight of a CL289.

Can anyone think of any UAVs or drones which weigh 600+ kg but utilize a parachute recovery system?

-Cheers
 

weasel1962

New Member
Re:

The range figure should be read with a pinch of salt.

A Hermes 450 UAV can travel 20+ hours at 70 kts which = 2600 + km range.

That doesn't mean it can strike a target 2600 km away.
 

sgtgunn

Defense Professional
Verified Defense Pro
So is this an attempt to build a "real" UCAV, or is it more of a "hey everyone, look what we can build, take us seriously" sort of thing? Maybe just a technology demonstrator to get local UAV development rolling?

Adrian
 

F-15 Eagle

New Member
Nothing special, The Germans had more accurate missiles in WWII.:rolleyes:

This so called "Ambassador of Death" has nothing on the American Tomahawk cruise missile.
 
Top