Iran boasts of new bombs for drones in armed forces display

What has Iran achieved now? It claims it now has a retractable landing gear for the rarely seen Fotros.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
Iranian versions of the American RQ-170 drone which were used in a military exercise in the Gulf in Iran, involving dozens of drones, are seen on the a runway, in this undated handout photo. (photo credit: REUTERS/TASNIM NEWS AGENCY)
Iranian versions of the American RQ-170 drone which were used in a military exercise in the Gulf in Iran, involving dozens of drones, are seen on the a runway, in this undated handout photo.
(photo credit: REUTERS/TASNIM NEWS AGENCY)
Iran’s Ministry of Defense has showcased a variety of new achievements with unmanned aerial vehicles.
Iran is enhancing its abilities to become one of the “top five countries in the world in the field of combat drones,” Fars News recently reported. It is investing in precision bombs, better guidance and other “leaps forward,” the report said.
It was not clear when the exhibition took place. But Fars News devoted a large segment to looking at the new capabilities of Iran’s weapons, which could threaten the US, Israel and allies in the region.
What is important in Iran is to showcase standardization and mass production of several successful and historic lines of drones, including the Ababil series, the Mohajer and now the Karar and Fotros.
The Karar is actually a kind of cruise missile, or kamikaze drone. The Fotros looks like it was designed as a copy of Israel’s IAI Heron.
Many Iranian drone models are copies of US drones that Iran has captured, although it has also built copies of Israeli drones and weapons.
Iran’s original 1980s drones were relatively innovative and unique. But it now wants copies of US models, such as the Predator and Sentinel, or Israel’s Elbit Hermes 450 either for propaganda reasons or airworthiness.
What has Iran achieved now? It claims it now has retractable landing gear for the rarely seen Fotros.
A new prototype, based on a 2013 version, is flying. Iran displayed the new drone with a bunch of existing models as if it was part of a kind of safari of military equipment.
Oddly, the Ministry of Defense left it to Fars News to speculate on the abilities of these drones. Iran has achieved new types of missiles, including “vertical armor-piercing bombs,” Iranian media reported.
We have seen these tested before, and they are also copies of foreign munitions. Iran says it also has upgraded its Mohajer-6, part of the family of drones in this class.
The dual-take drone is also a copy of foreign models, perhaps based on the Denel Dynamics Seeker from South Africa, which is based on Israeli successes with similar types of drones.
Iran has armed the Mohajer-6 with bombs under each wing and has published video of them striking targets. It has used them against Kurdish dissident groups, Tehran said.
Iran’s Karar drone, which is basically a cruise missile, can fly some 900 km. with a 250-kg. warhead, it said. It has invested in what it calls a Simorgh bomb, Iran said.
There is some lack of clarity about this term. Simorgh is also the name of a launch vehicle Iran uses, and it is supposedly a class of drones as well.
Iran said it armed this drone with an MK-82 bomb and a guidance system. Bizarrely, it seems to have basically taken a drone whose origins go back to the V-1 and the Teledyne Ryan Firebee and lashed a bomb onto it.
This is odd because the Iranians could just use this drone as a cruise missile, being that it does not seem to be able to return to base anyway.
There is lack of clarity about what Iran seeks to achieve using its increasing investment in these kinds of kamikaze drones. It used them against Saudi Arabia last September, and they are effective.
However, it is unclear why it would put more munitions on them. Iran seems to want to experiment with adding more bombs and guidance to its growing arsenal until it finds the right mix for drones and loitering munitions and cruise missiles.
The overall goal is to give the country a large number of abilities to threaten sophisticated adversaries, such as the US and Israel, by being able to field maneuverable munitions that also have their own bombs attached.
Iran may sense that Western air-defense systems will have difficulty dealing with a complex threat like this. It is already known that Iran pioneered precision-guided munitions, and adding these capabilities to drones seems to be its goal.