Whether based on land or at sea, Dark Sword appears to be uniquely well suited to operate under a 'loyal wingman' or 'tethered' concept of operations in addition to an independent one. Under such a setup, Dark Sword would be able to speed ahead of manned fighters on command to collect data and targeting information, or even engage targets itself. Such a capability would be useful to stealthy and non-stealthy manned fighters alike. But for the latter, it could be a huge force multiplier, providing high-end counter-air defense and strike capability without the cost of procuring droves of high-end stealthy manned fighters.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...-dark-sword-fighter-like-combat-drone-emerges
It’s one of a family of next gen Chinese UCAV being developed to do a host of combat missions. Chinese hope to even develop future versions of Dark Sword into the worlds first hypersonic drone in order to assist in air defense and air to air weapons development.
I would say Iran is now lagging both China and Russia in the Next gen UCAV department (at least publicly).
Closet thing Iran has to next gen UCAV is Sofreh Mahi project which after RQ-170 capture one wonders if the project has been cancelled or pivoted to a different design. I have been adamant on here for the need of a high altitude supersonic family of Iranian drones that can drop high altitude glide munitions or CMs onto enemy targets as well as A2A versions for air defense.
Karrar is a novel technique in line with traditional Iranian architecture of using current gen drone technology and cheaper costs. From that standpoint it’s unique as a current gen interceptor a combination of a drone, missile, with anti air seeker. Still I would consider it as more a loiter munition with some niche uses rather than full fledge interceptor that can be relied on during war or conflict to adequately assist with air defense.
Most countries have given that role to next gen UCAVs like Lockheed’s classified projects And Chinese various flying wing/delta wing projects such as Dark Sword and Sharp Sword.
An interceptor version of dark sword is still a concept. Dark sword has many versions and one is a shape shifting UAV!
Iran has shown an interceptor UAV in action at 500-600 m/s per this video.
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