Iranian UAVs | News and Discussions

[Bahram Esfandiari]

The big question here is how resistant are these UCAVs against U.S/Israeli EW?

 

[skyshadow]

The big question here is how resistant are these UCAVs against U.S/Israeli EW?

well they try that when saeghe went to Israel air space,

 

[Hack-Hook]

Yes but if it is necessary these cheap UCAVs can stay there in Israel as a kamikazi too!! Still the same effect

Do you really think these are cheap kamikaze UAVs?

 

[scythian500]

Do you really think these are cheap kamikaze UAVs?

I dont think they are expensive... is it?

 

[Mithridates]

I dont think they are expensive... is it?

they are jet powered drones with radar absorbing coating. avenger drone with similar capabilities costs 12-15 million$.

 

[Caspian Parsi]

I dont think they are expensive... is it?

Cheaper than the Western drones but not cheap in quality or performance , Most of these drones are combat-proven .

 

[Persian Gulf 1906]

they are jet powered drones with radar absorbing coating. avenger drone with similar capabilities costs 12-15 million$.

avenger drone is different category to small saeqeh drone... 6m wingspan vs 20m... turbofan engine, real stealth... saeqeh probably doesn't cost even 5% of avenger drone

 

[Mithridates]

avenger drone is different category to small saeqeh drone... 6m wingspan vs 20m... turbofan engine, real stealth... saeqeh probably doesn't cost even 5% of avenger drone

your right i didn't noticed the difference in jet engine and other stuff. s-191 would be really cheap but not that cheap to use it as a kamikaze drone

 

[scythian500]

your right i didn't noticed the difference in jet engine and other stuff. s-191 would be really cheap but not that cheap to use it as a kamikaze drone

Think of this.. You want to have a swarm attack in Israel...some of these UCAVs atleast the stealth ones MIGHT not have the range to come back... It is a whole scale war... Its easy for Iran to build and replace these UCAVs... If there is no option to fly them from Iraq or Syria...or to land somewhere close to the target, refuel and then come back...then if it was up to me I would use them to bomb targets and then another warhead on the plane itself for last Kamikaze attack... I don't think any of these Saeghes except for the RQ-170 copy cost anything more than one 2000 km BM... right? so if a missile is disposable and we can replace it...why not UCAVs!?

Imagine...

500+ UCAVs sent to bomb... each has two bombs... lets say the take down %80 of all UCAVs which is a hard task to achieve... the remaining 100 strategic sites would be hit... guess what happens in a small country like Israel... Just imagine some of them are falling on nuclear sites...

 

[VEVAK]

@VEVAK

Sure a local ground based link-up to drones that arrive there on autopilot is also a way to do real-time targeting.
It would be effective in a Israel scenario. But there may be situations where no such ground station or special forces deployed up-link is possible. Here the drone based data-link represents a more flexible approach.
Note that a map of Israel is behind the command center displays during Gen. Salamis statement

@Hack-Hook

Agreed. Current optics don't appear good enough for stand-off targeting. They may be high-altitude capable.
Hence subtract that extra 10km of the range calculation and add an penalty to the survivability due to the lack of stand-off targeting. However this is not a problem that can't be solved. Not only with more potent optics but with a SAR/GMTI payload for the UAV.
In fact such stand-off targeting most likely is the task of the main S-171. Here it would not just be high altitude and 10km distance, but something like 50km. That 50km distance to the target would then increase the survivability of the non-expandable targeting asset significantly.

Another note on the video: Note the prop-Saeghe with 4 Sadid PGMs capability instead the two internal of the S-191. The propeller propulsion of it allows for a heavier payload. Of course range would be reduced compared to the variants with just two for long range attacks.

In total, this is the first field in which Iran is pioneering the way on world scale. Innovations are made for the first time...
Look at the Israeli innovation with the Hermes that was the starting point for all of this. But now Iran is doing the innovation.
I can' stress enough how important a non-runway based airpower concept is.
The truck launch and (emergency)parachute return concept is a key development of immense importance. If it evolves to S-191-like platforms, it will create immense headache for any enemy.
Hajizadeh is fully right, this is Irans new revolutionary capability, adding up to the missile power. Capabilities that can't be neutralized by even using nuclear weapons.

UCAV's will continue to become more vital as tech advances and the U.S. has it's own ignorance to blame when it comes to Iran's missile and UAV program because If there were no sanctions on Iran's Air Force in the past 30 years at best by now the bulk of our main fighter fleet would of been made up of ~250 MiG-29's, Su-27's & Su-30's. with a relatively basic and underfunded missile program with a handful of Tel's, no real space program & a relatively basic UAV program at Mohajr-4 level. And taking out Iran's main retaliatory capabilities would have been as easy as taking out 200 aircraft bunkers. And at the end of the day if the U.S. hadn't sanctioned our Air Force for the past 4 decades today they could have easily gotten away with bombing our Nuclear program without fearing any major retaliatory response by Iran.


All that said Iran still needs to make UCAV mass production and R&D as top priority especially jet powered UCAV's with various ranges and payload capacities armed with a wide range of different types of PGM's

If for example the U.S. can deploy an F/A-18 armed with $400,000 USD 1000lb sensor fused weapon that has a total of 40 submunition skeets each weighing 7.5lb (300lb total weight of all 40 skeets combined) against an Iranian armored battalion then the IRGC in response needs to develop a UCAV's with the right weapons to achieve almost the same task for example an Iranian UCAV that can dispense 20x15lb munitions with each munition powered by it's own BLCD motors..... at half the cost

I believe Iran needs to also invest in donut shaped UCAV's capable taking off and landing vertically and UAV's don't necessarily need to be shaped like manned aircraft and adding 4 light microjet engines meant for limited use during takeoff and landing is worth the extra cost and weight.....

 

[Mithridates]

Think of this.. You want to have a swarm attack in Israel...some of these UCAVs atleast the stealth ones MIGHT not have the range to come back... It is a whole scale war... Its easy for Iran to build and replace these UCAVs... If there is no option to fly them from Iraq or Syria...or to land somewhere close to the target, refuel and then come back...then if it was up to me I would use them to bomb targets and then another warhead on the plane itself for last Kamikaze attack... I don't think any of these Saeghes except for the RQ-170 copy cost anything more than one 2000 km BM... right? so if a missile is disposable and we can replace it...why not UCAVs!?

Imagine...

500+ UCAVs sent to bomb... each has two bombs... lets say the take down %80 of all UCAVs which is a hard task to achieve... the remaining 100 strategic sites would be hit... guess what happens in a small country like Israel... Just imagine some of them are falling on nuclear sites...

bro it's range is 1300km it is able to do the job and come back home. karrar drone with one mk-82 bomb has a combat radius of 500km. s-191 with 8 meters wingspan and flying wing configuration has more room for fuel and has two munitions which weight almost 50 kg overall. with s-191 we can penetrate enemy airspace and take down enemy positions deep inside their borders just take a look at these:

we have all the PGCC and israel in our drone range. i think next step would be designing a better engine with low fuel consumption. for example williams f-112 engine consumes 82 kg fuel per hour to produce 3.4kn thrust while the number for our tolou engine is 340 kg (340-82=258 kg or two mk-81 bombs). this means if we change tolou with f-112, drone will have more space to carry bigger bombs with the same operational range.

 

[PeeD]

Well this all is a classical case of the Sepah "create opportunities from challenges" anecdote.

I guess many of us grew up with an airforce being the coolest military asset. But if the IRIAF would have re-equipped after the war and strong today, they would also have become influential, with tens of thousand of man.

Europe, America and Russia, even to some extend China, can't simply change their doctrine towards a swarm UAV one. The opposition faced to get that trough would be immense.

However for Iran it is possible.
Not only that, the non-runway take-off and parachute landing method also makes it more robust than fighter based doctrine could ever be.

For now it is still not suited for high intensity peer-level warfare but it surely will become in future.

It can be even said that a directional drone data relay concept would be more survivable against a world-power level opponent with ASAT capability. With a switch from the S-129 based platform to a stealthy S-191 like one that also needs no runway.

Not to talk about all the economic benefits a mature drone swarm based airpower concept brings.

These four pillars of the concept must be maintained:

- Runway-free take-off and landing capability
- Expandable: System cost must be keep low
- No critical GPS based systems, well encrypted communication and directional LPI radio links.
- Restricted size, to be truck launched, fit into bunkers/tunnels and have a naturally lower RCS due to size.

In that way such a fleet can become as large and menacing, as the BM arsenal.

 

[Aramagedon]

it was aliens bro !!!

Full documentary:

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[Navigator]

if they flew 1200 km to get to target that mean they have to fly back 1200 km to land which make it 2400 km range UCAV before that IRGC said saeghe has range of 1000 km.

It's not obligatory. They could fly from a remote base, and land on the reserve base, which is much closer to the target.

 

[sha ah]

and while talking about Iran they showed pictures of "the taliban?" or some men in a rural area with turbans ? What a joke, Iran is a technologically advanced country with 80 million people, with some of the best engineers in the world, producing 1.5 million cars a year, with the 4th largest reserves of crude oil & 2nd largest reserves of natural gas in the world. No wonder Americans are so ignorant, look at what garbage they feed them on tv.

"small country like Iran". I know these Americans are not known for the intelligence and/or geography skills but godamn that comment made me lol.