Iran builds new indigenous UAV dubbed Ra’ad 85

The UAV is a powerful drone and the size of the ammunition that it can carry is changeable depending on the type of its combat operation, he added.

The commander also said that Iran has attained self-sufficiency in producing UAVs.

Iranian Army’s Ground Force also unveiled a new indigenous combat drone called Yasir on Monday. The drone can fly at an altitude of 15,000 feet, has a flight endurance of eight hours and effective operational radius of 200 kilometers.

Yasir, a portable drone, is equipped with state-of-art and light cameras for reconnaissance.

On Friday, Iran also announced the mass-production of the indigenously developed unmanned UAV Shahed (Witness) 129, which was unveiled last year.

The Shahed 129 drone is a combat UAV capable of carrying eight bombs or domestically-manufactured Sadid missiles at the same time, and is designed to hit stationary and mobile targets alike.

It has an effective operational radius of 1,700 km in terms of precision targeting, flight endurance of 24 hours on a single fuel run and a flight ceiling of 24,000 feet. It has a monitoring capability of 200 km radius.

Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Division, said Friday that the drone can help ensure sustainable security for the country.

“Shahed 129 can easily track and identify bandits, terrorists and drug smugglers as well as anyone targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran’s sustainable security and can fire missiles at them upon orders from commanders,” he said.

In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and has attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems.

Tehran has repeatedly assured other nations that its military might poses no threat to other countries since the Islamic Republic’s defense doctrine is based entirely on deterrence.

AR/HGH

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