AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Iran’s Defense Ministry unveils the latest precision strike unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by the country's Armed Forces.
Ababil (Flock of Birds), as the new drone is named, was unveiled during a visit by Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf to an exhibition held by the ministry on Saturday, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported.
The Armed Forces’ latest achievement in the field of the unmanned aircraft is a cruise missile carrying drone with hight destructive power.
The aircraft has been outfitted with an optical seeker and a warhead capable of detecting targets. It is also able to capture and relaying live images of the targets, lock on terrestrial targets and destroying them with precision.
The Iranian Armed Forces are yet to unveil the exact flying range of the new drone and its destructive power.
Back in August, a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced that the country had become an exporter of military drones and that the Islamic Republic holds the upper hand in the field defensive aerospace technology.
“In the military field, we did not have, in the past, the capabilities that we enjoy today. In the past, we imported [even] barbed wire, but now we export drones,” Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Division said at the time.
A month earlier, Iran's Navy incorporated a special division tasked with transporting and operating various drones.
The first drone carrier division of the Navy, which is comprised of different surface and submersible units, was unveiled during a ceremony held in the international waters of the Indian Ocean.
The division is capable of carrying various combat, surveillance, and kamikaze drones and has joined the country's southern fleet.
Testifying before Congress last year, head of the United States Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie said Iran's widespread use of drones meant that the US was operating without complete air superiority for the first time since the Korean War.
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