Iran Press/Iran news: Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) held offensive-combat drone exercises in the Persian Gulf region, involving dozens of RQ-170 stealth unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that Tehran has manufactured based on a model of a US Sentinel drone it captured unharmed in 2011.
The massive drills, dubbed ‘Towards al-Quds 1,’ were staged by the IRGC's Aerospace Division in the general range of the Persian Gulf, with senior military officials in attendance, Iran Press reported.
Different types of 'offensive and combat' drones, including 10 Iran-built RQ-170s, took part in the maneuvers.
It is the first time that Iran's armed forces test the performance of such a high number of offensive drones during a combat-offensive operation, which saw the aircraft fly simultaneously at a distance of over 1,000 kilometers from the hostile targets before approaching and striking them at a specific time.
In December 2011, Iran famously grounded a US RQ-170 Sentinel using electronic warfare techniques, as the stealth aircraft was flying over the Iranian city of Kashmar near the Afghan border.
In just a few years, Iran unveiled its own RQ-170 drone manufactured by the reverse-engineering of captured Lockheed Martin’s Sentinel aircraft.
The reverse-engineered version of the RQ-170 drone was used to target Daesh (ISIS) terrorists’ positions in Syria and Iraq. Iran’s UAV program has also played a significant role in monitoring US warships in the Persian Gulf.101/202/213
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