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Monday, August 25, 2014 |
IRGC Aerospace Commander: Downed Israeli Spy Drone A Hermes Type |
Mon Aug 25, 2014 12:55 TEHRAN (FNA)- The Israeli pilotless aircraft which was shot down yesterday = was a Hermes-type drone, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps = (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh announced on = Monday. "The downed spy drone is Hermes and made in Israel," General Hajizadeh said = on Monday. He said the operational range of Hermes drones is 800 kilometers, adding = that the aircraft can fly 1,600 kilometers by refueling once. The General said parts of the aircraft have burnt out after it was targeted = by the ground-to-air missiles of the IRGC Aerospace Force and after its fue= tank blast, yet "some parts of this drone are intact and we are now = analyzing the information and intel of these parts". Elaborating on the details of the down Israeli aircraft, the commander = further stated that the drone, which is 5.5 meters wide in wings, is = equipped with two cameras which can take high-quality photos. "There was no prior information available about the aircraft and the only = one of this type had been downed in Syria, but this one is more advanced," = General Hajizadeh said. The Elbit Systems Hermes 450 is an Israeli medium size multi-payload UAV, = designed for tactical long endurance missions. It has a flight endurance of over 20 hours, with a primary mission of = reconnaissance, surveillance and communications relay. The IRGC Aerospace Force shot down an Israeli spy drone before it could = reach Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, in Central Iran, on Sunday. On Sunday, the IRGC Public Relations Department said in a statement that th= Israeli pilotless aircraft was a radar-evading, stealth drone with the = mission to spy on Iran's enrichment activities by flying over Natanz nuclea= enrichment plant. The IRGC also pointed out in its statement that the Israeli hostile aircraf= has been targeted by a surface-to-air missile. "This mischievous attempt once again made the adventurous nature of the = Zionist regime more evident and added another black page to the dark record = of this fake and warmongering regime, which is full of crimes and = wickedness," the statement added. The IRGC further warned that it "preserves the right of response and = retaliation for itself". It also noted that the IRGC alongside other Armed Forces of the Islamic = Republic is fully and resolutely ready to defend the noble Iranian nation = and Islamic Iran. Senior IRGC officials announced later last night that IRGC experts are = decoding the intelligence devices of the Israeli spy drone that they shot = down in Central Iran earlier yesterday. Director of the IRGC's Public Relations Department General Ramezan Sharif = told FNA on Sunday night that some of the parts of the downed aircraft are = working, "and our experts are studying the information and intelligence of = these parts". "We are now analyzing the information of this plane," he added. Gen. Sharif further mentioned that Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force = Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh will soon reveal more details on the = spy drone and the way it has been hunted down by his forces. notable case the country announced on December 4, 2011 that its defense = forces had downed a US RQ-170 aircraft through a sophisticated cyber attack= The drone was the first such loss by the US. US officials have described th= loss of the aircraft in Iran as a setback and a fatal blow to the stealth = drone program. CIA's fleet that was shaped and designed to evade enemy defenses. Since December, 2011, Iran has hunted down several more US drones of variou= types. In January 2013, a deputy commander of the Iranian Navy announced that the = country's Army had hunted two more advanced RQ type UAVs. "The air-defense units of the Army have hunted two enemy drones," Deputy = Commander of the Iranian Navy for Coordination Rear Admiral Amir Rastegari = told FNA. "These drones were from 11th series of the RQ class, and one of them was = hunted in Shahrivar 1390 (August 21-September 19, 2011) and the other one i= Aban (October 22-November 20, 2012)," Rastegari said, adding that the Army = research center is now studying the two UAVs. "Much of the data of these drones has been decoded by the Army's Jihad and = Research Center," he said, but did not provide any further detail. The remarks by the Iranian commander came after Iran announced on December = 4, 2012 that the IRGC Navy had hunted a US UAV over the Persian Gulf after = the drone violated the country's airspace. The IRGC navy commander announced at the time that the hunted UAV was a = ScanEagle drone, adding that "such drones are usually launched from large = warships". ScanEagle is a small, low-cost, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle buil= by Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing. Iran later reproduced its own model of ScanEagle through reverse engineerin= techniques. Iran has downed many other US drones as well, and they have always started = reproducing them after conducting reverse engineering on them. The unmanned surveillance plane lost by the United States in Iran was a = stealth aircraft being used for secret missions by the CIA, US officials = admitted in December. The aircraft is among the highly sensitive = surveillance platform in the CIA's fleet that was shaped and designed to = evade enemy defenses. In December, Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC Brigadier General Hossein = Salami announced that the Iranian version of the US drone, RQ-170, would be = unveiled to the public soon. =93The construction of this drone will finish soon and most of the job has = been done now,=94 General Salami told reporters on the sidelines of a = conference in Tehran in December, 2013. In relevant remarks in October, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force = Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran moved as much as 35 = years ahead in building drone engines by reverse engineering the US drone, = RQ-170 which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011. The RQ-170 engines are the fifth generation and the engines of Iranian = unmanned planes are the third generation, Hajizadeh said, adding that to = produce the engine we had to spend 35 years on the project. He said that the home-made version of the US drone RQ-170 captured by the = IRGC would make its maiden flight in the near future. In April, 2013, a senior Iranian parliamentary official announced that Iran = has reverse engineered the RQ-170, adding that the Iranian version of the = drone would soon have a test flight. "The brave personnel of the Armed Forces hunted down the drone with their = knowledge and science and the Americans protested immediately and called fo= the return of the UAV," Chairman of the parliament's National Security and = Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said in the Northern city of = Rasht last April. Iran has downed several US drones so far and Boroujerdi did not mention = which one he meant, but explained, "The reverse engineering started = immediately (by the Iranian experts after hunting down the US UAV) and the = Iranian type of the US drone will fly in Iran's Aerospace Organization soon = which shows the Islamic Republic's might and power." = ________________________________________ Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on A= Website: www.imra.org.il For free regular subscription: For free daily digest subscription: IMRA is now also on Twitter |
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