Venezuaila starts assembelling Iranian made UAVs

[BordoEnes]

Iranian Mohajer-2 drone appears in Venezuela. Chavezs building his own drone fleet with the help of Tehran. June 12, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in Drones, Iran.
Tags: Iran, Mohajer, UAV, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Venezuela
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Under the name of Sant Arpia, the Mohajer 2, a quite famous Made-in-Iran drone, is currently flying in Venezuela.

Reportedly operating from the Cavim (CA Venezolana de Industria Militares) Maracay factory, where a new UAV facility has been unveiled by recent satellite imagery, the Mohajer 2 is a light unarmed drone that can be used for surveillance missions within a range of 50 km from the departure airfield at a speed of 200 km/h. Its ceiling is 11,000 feet of altitude and endurance is reported to be around 90 minutes.

Being equipped with skids, the Mohajer 2 is recovered using a recovery chute.

Although the dozen are believed to have been slightly modified by Caracas, the Mohajer 2 is an Iranian UAV model and, as such, it could not be purchased by Chavez, because of the embargo on the ayatollah regime.

Moreover, as highlighted by the special correspondent in Washington for the Spanish ABC.es Emili J. Blasco, the technology transfer agreement worth 28 million USD would seem to excede the price of a dozen drones (three of those crashed) that were purchased by Venezuela.

Indeed, along with a drone factory that has not come into operation, some more facilities have been built at Cavim. What Iranian personnel is doing inside the other facitilies remains a mystery. Maybe the mystery that U.S. drones aim to investigate.

The following image, published on several forums around the world (attribution hence impossible to determine), shows a Venezuelan Sant Arpia: noteworthy the tail section wears registration Arpia-002 while front section is marked Arpia-003. Does this mean the drone is made up of parts from different examples?

 

[kollang]

thanks

 

[lem34]

Way to go Iran. So much for sanctions eh?

 

[kollang]

Way to go Iran. So much for sanctions eh?

bro if there was no sanctions.we could export more weapon to the world.

 

[SOHEIL]

Mohajer 4

 

[WAQAS119]

Mohajer 4

Best to terminate Altaf bhai....

 

[Arian]

The Venezuelan drone looks better than ours. Why we always like to paint and design crappy UAVs? They might have some good features, but the way we paint them makes them look weak and amateur. I don't know why.

Also why Venezuelan didn't go for newer versions of Muhajer?!

 

[SOHEIL]

The Venezuelan drone looks better than ours. Why we always like to paint and design crappy UAVs? They might have some good features, but the way we paint them makes them look weak and amateur. I don't know why.

Also why Venezuelan didn't go for newer versions of Muhajer?!

موافقم با رنگ آمیزی

 

[ihealugo]

that's because we want to show that they are some **** but suddenly they kill the enemy in a blink of eye

 

[PERSIAN GOD KING]

The Venezuelan drone looks better than ours. Why we always like to paint and design crappy UAVs? They might have some good features, but the way we paint them makes them look weak and amateur. I don't know why.

Also why Venezuelan didn't go for newer versions of Muhajer?!

remember they way it looks has nothing to do with how good it is. this applies to everything, even humans.
now I don't think their drone looks better than ours, they kid of look the same.

the reason some things you see might seem to not good painted is because we mass produce them in very big numbers, so then it would be waste of time to try and make every single one seem perfect.

 

[PERSIAN GOD KING]

The Venezuelan drone looks better than ours. Why we always like to paint and design crappy UAVs? They might have some good features, but the way we paint them makes them look weak and amateur. I don't know why.

Also why Venezuelan didn't go for newer versions of Muhajer?!

remember they way it looks has nothing to do with how good it is. this applies to everything, even humans.
now I don't think their drone looks better than ours, they kid of look the same.

the reason some things you see might seem to not good painted is because we mass produce them in very big numbers, so then it would be waste of time to try and make every single one seem perfect.

 

[PERSIAN GOD KING]

Venezuela says building drones with Iran's help

By Brian Ellsworth

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela is building unmanned drone aircraft as part of military cooperation with Iran and other allies, President Hugo Chavez said, in a move likely to heighten U.S. anxiety over his socialist government’s role in the region.

Referring to a Spanish media report that U.S. prosecutors are investigating drone production in Venezuela, Chavez said late on Wednesday: “Of course we’re doing it, and we have the right to. We are a free and independent country.”

In a televised speech to military officers at Venezuela’s Defense Ministry, Chavez said the aircraft only has a camera and was exclusively for defensive purposes. “We don’t have any plans to harm anyone,” he said.

“We are doing this with the help of different countries including China, Russia, Iran, and other allied countries,” he added, apparently referring both to drone construction and to other projects including a munitions and weapons factory.

During the lengthy broadcast, Chavez spoke by satellite link with a Venezuelan military officer at the state-owned arms maker Cavim.

The officer stood by a small drone labeled Harpy-001. He said it was 13 feet (4 meters) by 8 feet (2.5 meters), could fly as high as 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) and for as long as 90 minutes. Venezuela has produced three of them, he said.

“They are made in this country with military engineers who went to do a course in the sister Republic of Iran,” said the officer.

Chavez, whose stridently anti-Washington politics are highly popular in his OPEC nation, has expanded ties with Iran amid growing pressure by the United States and other nations on Tehran over its nuclear program. Iran denies Western charges that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Spain’s ABC reported this week that U.S. prosecutors in New York were looking into Venezuela’s construction of drones and purchase of drones from Iran, citing sources familiar with the investigation.

‘INTERNAL DEFENSE’

In March, U.S. News and World Report’s military blog DOTMIL quoted General Douglas Fraser, the head of U.S. Southern Command, as saying Iran planned to build “fairly limited capacity” drones in Venezuela for the Venezuelan military that were similar to the U.S.-made unarmed ScanEagle class of drones.

“It’s not up into the Predator class,” DOTMIL quoted Fraser as telling reporters in Washington, referring to the bigger drones that can be armed with air-to-ground Hellfire missiles.

He said the drones were likely for “internal defense.”

Iran in December said it shot down a U.S. military drone that had violated its airspace and demanded an apology from Washington. Iranian officials said later they were close to cracking the Lockheed Martin Corp aircraft’s technology.

Chavez said Venezuela would soon receive visits from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who came to Caracas in January, as well as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

He scoffed at what he said would be the likely U.S. reaction to Venezuela building drones.

“Pretty soon someone is probably going to say there’s an atomic bomb on the tip of it,” joked Chavez, dressed in military fatigues, adding that the drone could be used in oil and mining exploration.

Armed drones have become a key weapon in the U.S. fight against Taliban and other militants in Pakistan, sparking outrage by Pakistan’s government. U.S. officials said last week a drone strike in Pakistan killed al Qaeda’s second-in-command.
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