Iran launches its own unmanned bomber!

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
What do you guys think of Iran's newest toy, undoubtedly launched as a deterrent in light of recent events.

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TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday inaugurated the country's first domestically built unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an "ambassador of death" to Iran's enemies.

The 4-meter-long drone aircraft can carry up to four cruise missiles and will have a range of 620 miles (1,000 kilometers), according to a state TV report — not far enough to reach archenemy Israel.

"The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship," said Ahmadinejad at the inauguration ceremony, which fell on the country's national day for its defense industries.

The goal of the aircraft, named Karrar or striker, is to "keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases," he said, adding that the aircraft is for deterrence and defensive purposes.

The president championed the country's military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue "until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation."

Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo and now produces its own tanks, armored personnel carries, missiles and even a fighter plane.

Iran frequently makes announcements about new advances in military technology that cannot be independently verified.

State TV later showed video footage of the plane taking off from a launching pad and reported that the craft traveled at speeds of 560 miles per hour (900 kilometers per hour) and could alternatively be armed with two 250-pound (113.4-kilogram) bombs or a 450-pound (204.12-kilogram) guided bomb.

Iran has been producing its own light, unmanned surveillance aircraft since the late 1980s.

The ceremony came a day after Iran began to fuel its first nuclear power reactor, with the help of Russia, amid international concerns over the possibility of a military dimension to its nuclear program.

Iran insists it is only interested in generating electricity.

Referring to Israel's occasional threats against Iran's nuclear facilities, Ahmadinejad called any attack unlikely, but he said if Israel did, the reaction would be overwhelming.

"The scope of Iran's reaction will include the entire the earth," said Ahmadinejad. "We also tell you — the West — that all options are on the table."

Ahmadinejad appeared to be consciously echoing the terminology used by the U.S. and Israel in their statements not ruling out a military option against Iran's nuclear facilities.

On Friday, Iran also test-fired a new liquid fuel surface-to-surface missile, the Qiam-1, with advanced guidance systems.
 

sumdud

Senior Member
VIP Professional
I'd say it's another Iranian act of calling a cat a tiger.
Most Air Forces today don't bother with w/ bombers because fighters can more or less do the same damage on a similar budget, if not less.
Iran knows that, so I will say they decided to call this a bomber to scare folks.

The thing is, why don't Iran just develop a cruise missile that's good enough to fly the distance by itself? What kind of control does this UAV have?
 

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
I'd say it's another Iranian act of calling a cat a tiger.
Most Air Forces today don't bother with w/ bombers because fighters can more or less do the same damage on a similar budget, if not less.
Iran knows that, so I will say they decided to call this a bomber to scare folks.

The thing is, why don't Iran just develop a cruise missile that's good enough to fly the distance by itself? What kind of control does this UAV have?

This UAV apparently doesn't have radio control, meaning that it travels on a preprogrammed course. The Iranians say that they did this to defend the plane from jamming/electronic attacks but it probably resulted from a lack of expertise. I don't know how accurate the plane could be though without the proper feedback.
 

rhino123

Pencil Pusher
VIP Professional
What I am more interested is this paragraph,

"The 4-meter-long drone aircraft can carry up to four cruise missiles and will have a range of 620 miles (1,000 kilometers), according to a state TV report — not far enough to reach archenemy Israel."

Does it means that the drone can fly for 1000km? Or was it that the combined range of the cruise missiles and aircraft was 1000km?

Plus what type of cruise missiles could this drone actually carried... in later paragraphs, it did say that it could carry bombs but didn't mention what type of missiles it could use.

If this unmanned aerial vehicle could actually carried the YJ-series of anti-shipping missiles that I believe Iran already have, and if the Iran engineer could actually gave it a realtime control capability, then I would see that this aircraft would cause havoc to opponent's ships.
 

Pointblank

Senior Member
It looks like a variation of the Soviet SS-2 Styx/silkworm anti-ship missile. If the Israeli's are able to jam some of the best air defence system available, they can sure as hell jam this drone.

I would call this a nuisance threat, but not a true military threat. A nation with good airborne early warning systems and air defence capabilities (re: Israel) will for the most part defeat such a threat. Not a very good choice of weapon against a nation who's military thinking and orientation has been heavily affected by Iraqi Scud's during the 1991 Gulf War and has developed and deployed a very strong air defence system. Unless the Iranians are able to deploy tens of thousands of them, they won't be much of a threat.
 

maozedong

Banned Idiot
It looks like a variation of the Soviet SS-2 Styx/silkworm anti-ship missile. If the Israeli's are able to jam some of the best air defence system available, they can sure as hell jam this drone.

I would call this a nuisance threat, but not a true military threat. A nation with good airborne early warning systems and air defence capabilities (re: Israel) will for the most part defeat such a threat. Not a very good choice of weapon against a nation who's military thinking and orientation has been heavily affected by Iraqi Scud's during the 1991 Gulf War and has developed and deployed a very strong air defence system. Unless the Iranians are able to deploy tens of thousands of them, they won't be much of a threat.

I think this news more threat Western:

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sumdud

Senior Member
VIP Professional
Given that its alternative payload is about 200kg (Although I find it weird that it was reported in definite pounds.) and that this is a UAV, my guess is that its missile would probably be in the Delilah range, or maybe the C-701 and its derivatives.
 

Gallaghan36

Banned Idiot
This missile drone or whatever looks like crap and not even has a practical use as effective as PLA's DH-10 and USA's Tomahawk. Iran should stop making fuss about paper tigers anymore its getting old!:nana:
 
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