After money, rockets and fighters, Iran sends its drones to Syria

The latest generation of Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been spotted in Syrian skies. Footage of the Shahed 129 UAV overflying East Ghouta, Damascus, has been posted by Syrian activists on Youtube. [1]

UAV’s, commonly known as drones, are small aircraft typically used for spying and gathering visual intelligence but could also carry weapons. The Shahed 129 was unveiled in late 2012 and entered mass production in September 2013 for the Aerospace Force of the Iranian army. It has an operational radius of 1,700km, a monitoring capability of 200km and a flight endurance of 24 hours while flying at 7,315m high.

According to Spioenkop, a specialist blog that has been monitoring weapons used in Syria, The Shahed 129 flying over Ghouta is a modified version of the original Shahed 129, “possibly of the third batch manufactured.” [2] The authors say improvements include “a retractable landing gear and the carriage of weapons. The antenna on top of the newly enlarged bulge also appears to be a recent addition.”

The drone seen in the video is not provided with a weapon, but this does not exclude the possibility of armed Shahed 129’s in the near future. The Shahed 129 can carry up to eight guided missiles. In November 2013, another new Iranian drone, known as The Yasir UAV, was spotted in Syrian skies. The Yasir is based on the American-made Scan Eagle, of which at least one was captured by Iran.

EDITOR’S COMMENT:
Next time you hear an Iranian official talking about the necessity of increasing the country’s defence budget and developing Iran’s military arsenal in order to ‘defend the country’ against ‘our enemies’, remember that Iranian weapons and money are being wasted on a war of aggression, to defend an unpopular dictator in another country.

REFERENCES:

[1] See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2nb7iajUdI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncFicAkemSY
[2] http://spioenkop.blogspot.it/2014/04/iran-deploying-her-newest-drones-to.html
[3] http://spioenkop.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-yasir-uav-iran-deploying-her-newest.html

•