Iran announces mass production of bomb-carrying drones
Defense minister inaugurates factory for building UAVs that are to be supplied to Revolutionary Guard Corps
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleStuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Iran on Monday opened a production line to build attack drones that it said can carry smart munitions and strike a variety of targets, Iranian media reported.
Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami opened the facility in Tehran that will reportedly manufacture Iran’s Mohajer 6 unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV.
The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ ground forces, Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, was also at the event.
Hatami boasted that the drone can carry Iran’s home-produced Qaem smart bombs and that it has various electro-optical sensors for acquiring stationary and moving targets during night- and daytime operations.
The drone, he said, can also carry out long-range reconnaissance and combat missions as well as use short runways for takeoff and landing, Iranian state Press TV reported. It will be supplied to the Revolution Guard Corps.
Hatami did not specify how far the drones can fly.
In September 2017 Israel shot down what was believed to be an Iranian-manufactured drone operated by the Hezbollah terror group as it flew into Israeli airspace over the Golan Heights. The UAV was hit with a Patriot missile.
In 2015, Press TV quoted IRGC second-in-command Brigadier General Hossein Salami as saying the country had developed UAVs that can fly 3,000 kilometers) 1,860 miles), a distance that would put Israel in range.
The Times of Israel Community.