Iran Press/ Iran News: Today, due to the change in the way of fighting, drones have become one of the important, vital, and valuable weapons in the armies of the world, especially in powerful military countries. Considering this and the significant investment in this field, the advances of the Islamic Republic of Iran's drones in the last three decades have been remarkable, and Iran's drones, especially in the last decade, have well indicated their high value in the fields of surveillance and identification and targeting.
During the past years, Iran's drone power has been accompanied by a significant jump by focusing on the quantity and quality of unmanned aerial vehicles. Today, it has ranked first in the region and has a special place among the countries with drone manufacturing technology.
In the classification of drones, they can be divided into reconnaissance, combat, and suicide. Suicide drones are among the new types of unmanned aerial vehicles, which have very limited examples among the countries that have the technology to design and manufacture drones. In recent years, especially during the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020 and the Ukraine war in 2022, a wide range of Suicide drones have been used and have performed well. The Islamic Republic of Iran, in line with the development of various types of drones in dimensions and sizes, as well as various missions, has reached the technology of suicide drones for several years.
Suicide drones have been displayed in the recent exercises of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps and the Islamic Republic Army, the last of which was the large drone exercise of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army in early September. Among the very effective and high-performance suicide drones is the Arash drone. With the unveiling of the Arash suicide drone by the Army in the exercise of December 2019, which has a range of about two thousand kilometers, the Islamic Republic of Iran made another world record in the field of special and modern drones. The Arash drone, which is a suicide and anti-radar drone, is known as the longest-range suicide drone in the world. This drone is more advanced than similar foreign drones and has significant capabilities.
Related News:
Iran showcases abilities of home-made drones in Air Force drill
An overview
Arash UAV, which is referred to as a suicide drone to target the radars of the enemy's air defense system, has the ability to attack the sensitive and vital points of the enemy in a precise manner. Arash UAV, which is the developed type of Kian series UAV, is very similar to Kian 2 UAV in terms of shape, appearance and size. Arash UAV is actually developed based on the Kian series, and the Kian UAV family has two members, the first one is called Kian 1, and in 2014, the bird entered the combat organization of the Air Defense Force with the mission of being a target for testing radar systems.
Ability to suppress air defense
The Kian 2 UAV entered service with the mission of anti-interception and attack on ground targets in the form of destruction in 2019, which is much larger than the original model. According to the announced information, Kian 2 UAV has a range of more than 1000 km, and according to estimates, it uses a solid fuel booster and a turbojet engine. The Arash drone is almost the same in size and appearance as the Kian 2, but there is one big difference between the two. In addition to its destructive ability, Arash UAV has the ability to suppress air defense. No detailed information has been published about the accompanying systems of this drone, but it seems that radar wave receiving systems have been installed inside this drone and it can detect and attack the target by creating a radar detection mode. Also, the Arash drone, unlike the Kian series, uses a propeller engine.
Related News:
Sleek Iranian drones showcased in Army 2022 Expo
In the first large-scale army drone exercise in January 2019, Arash's destructive drone was launched from the coast of Makran and after traveling a distance of about 1400 km, it hit its target in the general area of the exercise in Semnan province, which is very remarkable. In this exercise, the Arash suicide drone was launched from a portable container on commercial vehicles, which leads to an increase in the mobility and movement of this drone during stealth.
After this successful test, Vice Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, Deputy Chief of the Army for Operations and Spokesman of the Army's drone exercise in 2019, said about this drone: "With the efforts of the experts of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, the continuous flight of the army's destructive drones has increased up to 2000 kilometers. Reaching the range of 2 thousand kilometers in a suicide, anti-radar drone has made the Islamic Republic of Iran the holder of the longest range of these UAVs in the world."
In the Zulfiqar 1400 exercise, in a quick and accurate operation, the Arash suicide drone of the army's ground force, by traveling a long distance from the origin and hitting the designated point, showed the accuracy of Iranian drones in the battle scene.
Related News:
UAVs embark on missions in Iranian army's drone drills
Specifications of Arash UAV
Due to the similarity of the structure of the Kian 2 drone with the Arash drone, the length of the Arash drone is approximately four and a half meters and its wingspan is about 3.5 to 4 meters. The wingspan of this drone is designed to fly at subsonic speeds. The Arash drone's wing is of delta type, which is designed for high speeds, that's why due to the high speed of this drone, it can maintain its fuel for a longer period of time and as a result, it can fly longer distances. In this UAV, a solid fuel booster is used to reach the initial speed to turn on the engine and start flying. The big difference between the Arash drone engine and the Kian series drones is that Arash has a propeller engine. This type of engine produces a special sound when it starts.
Arash UAV has systems capable of receiving radar waves. This feature, along with the nest detecting mode in Arash UAV, makes this bird gain the ability to precisely hit the target. Another important issue is related to the ability to launch this drone from inside a box-shaped launcher from the back of a truck. The Arash UAV is launched not only from platforms mounted on the back of tractors like the Karrar series but also from a box launcher placed on the back of a truck.
This capability makes it more difficult to identify this drone, and combining this issue with the high mobility of its carrier will greatly increase its survivability. Such a launch mechanism can easily be installed on various ships of the Navy, Army and even the IRGC, which is a very important advantage in combat missions. This type of launch reduces the detection of this bird by the enemy. In addition to having such a great advantage in this unmanned bird, this drone can be launched from different places to the target. In fact, the Arash UAV can be launched both from the land and from the sea to destroy the target. One of the unique characteristics of the Arash UAV is that it can also destroy fixed and floating targets.
In this way, the Arash UAV has anti-ship capability. Anti-radar missiles, in general, can be used as an anti-ship weapon by locking onto their radars due to the low speed of warships. Previous suicide and anti-radar drones also have this ability, but obviously, due to the small warhead, they may not be a suitable option for this mission. But the Arash suicide and anti-radar drone is capable of inflicting much more damage on enemy vessels. Also, one of the most important features of this drone is its operating range, which has increased a lot compared to the Kian drone and has reached two thousand kilometers.
Author: Reza Mirtaher
214
Read More:
Iranian army's drone exercise
