Sat Apr 18, 2015 5:51
Iran Unveils New Programmable Drone
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940129001323

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran unveiled a new home-made programmable drone named 'Basir'
in a ceremony on the occasion of the Army Day on Saturday.

"Basir is a self-control drone that moves according to the flight plan in
the specified routes and land in the same take-off point after ending its
mission," an official of the Northwestern city of Zanjan's 216 Armored
Brigade Mohammad Mohammadi said Saturday.

Noting that the drone's development and construction lasted four months, he
said that the aircraft has been built for gathering samples from areas
contaminated with chemical materials and for monitoring and gathering
information in areas afflicted with natural disasters.

Yet, he said, the drone can also be armed with different weapons to be used
for other missions such as street wars, reconnaissance and surveillance
missions.

Iran has taken huge steps in recent years in building drones.

In relevant remarks on Tuesday, a senior Iranian commander said that the
country is armed with fire-and-forget drones.

Iran's home-made drone, Ra'd (Thunder) 85, is a fire-and-forget aircraft
which can be reprogrammed to destroy specific and changing targets hundreds
of miles away with maximum precision, a ground force commander said.

Fire-and-forget is a type of missile guidance system that does not need to
be guided after launch by such techniques as marking the target or wired
guidance; these systems can hit targets without the launcher being in
line-of-sight of the target.

"The Ground Force's suicide drones destroy the target like a small cruise
missile and Ra'd 85 enjoys this capability and destroys targets with a
powerful warhead and very high striking precision," Commander of the Iranian
Ground Force's Vali-e Asr Drone Group Colonel Reza Khaki said in Tehran.

"Ra'd 85 is a fire-and-forget aircraft and is programmed to strike at
specified targets; it may also receive (new information for) new targets and
new flying routes as it is in the sky and it can also return to the lair if
the mission is called off," he added.

He said Iran is now a major drone power in the region, and added that the
Ground Force's drones will be equipped with missiles and rockets for future
drills.

In relevant remarks on Sunday, Iranian Ground Force Commander Brigadier
General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said that the Force had armed its drones with
missiles and rockets.

"We are after increasing the range and flight duration of our drones and all
Ground Force drones will be armed with missiles and rockets next year," he
said.

Pourdastan said "these weapons have already been mounted on the drones but,
the aircraft need to accomplish all their flight tests" before all of them
are armed with missiles and rockets.

Senior Iranian military officials announced in March that the country's
armed forces were creating a growing number of drone units, adding that the
number of drone flights had grown 800 times more than just a year ago.

"In the structure of the Armed Forces, separate drone missions have been
defined for each force; the Air Force has been entrusted with special
missions and drone units have been formed in Air Force bases to this end,"
commander of the Air Force's drone units said.

He announced plans to increase the number of home-made drones in the next 5
years, and said the Air Force would also operate long-range drones,
specially for very distant missions.

"We are also after increasing the flight duration of drones and their
armaments and electronic war systems for possible asymmetric wars," the
commander said.

Noting that the Air Force had made major progress in training drone
operators and preparing drone bases, he said the flights of the Iranian
drones had become 800-folded this year compared with the pervious year.

Iran is one of the five manufactures of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in
the world, western media reports said in February.

Iran, the US, China, Russia and Israel are the main manufacturers of drones
across the globe, the National Interest reported.