“The Islamic Republic of Iran is known as an advanced country in the field of (building) drones," Manteqi said on the sidelines of the MAKS 2015 air show which took place last week in the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow.
He underlined that the Russians plan to transfer the technology of building one of Iran's drones to their country, but he declined to reveal any further details. “We are discussing this issue now,” he said.
The Islamic Republic has so far unveiled various domestically produced drones, including Ababil, Fotros, Hazem, Karrar (long range attack drone), Mohajer, Sarir, Shahed 129, Yasir and Zohal.
A senior Iranian Commander announced in October that the IRGC Ground Force is finalizing manufacture of a new homemade drone armed with the RPG (rocket-propelled grenade).
Commander of the IRGC Ground Forces Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said at the time that the combat drone would carry the RPG with no Backblast. He also noted that the drone has passed the tests and will be completed in the near future.
Iran unveiled its first homemade fighter drone that carries air-to-air missiles last September.
The Iranian media outlets reported that the drone is capable of destroying all types of aircrafts including fighters, small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and helicopters.
The country unveiled its first domestically manufactured long-range UAV named Karrar in 2010. The first Iranian medium-altitude long-endurance UAV, the Shahed-129 was unveiled in September 2012, which is capable of carrying out combat and reconnaissance eight missions for 24 hours and has a range of 1,700 km.
Iran also unveiled its largest yet homemade UAV, titled 'Fotros' in 2013. Fotros has a range of some 2,000 kilometers and is capable of launching air-to-surface missile strikes. The drone can fly at an altitude of 25,000 feet, with a flight time of 16 to 30 hours.
Iran started mass production of the “Yasir” UAV in September 2013. Yasir can fly at an altitude of 15,000 ft., be in flight for eight hours, cover the distance of 200 km, and does not need a runway. The UAV is equipped with light powerful modern cameras, and can precisely control the target.
Also in November 2014, Hajizadeh announced that four Iran-made RQ-170 drones - manufactured through the reverse engineering of a similar American pilotless plane that was downed by Iran in 2011, would start operational flights by the end of the current Iranian year.
Source: FNA
