U.S. RQ-170 Iran claimed to capture in 2011
U.S. RQ-170 Iran claimed to capture in 2011Reuters

Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Saturday unveiled a new attack drone which, it claimed, is similar to a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle captured five years ago and is capable of carrying bombs, Fox News reported.

The drone, called the "Saegheh" or Thunderbolt, was unveiled at an expo showcasing the latest achievements by the Revolutionary Guard.

"This long-range drone is capable of hitting four targets with smart precision-guided bombs with high accuracy," the head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace arm, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency said the drone is similar to the RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone used by the U.S. Iran's state-run Press TV said the long-range drone can carry four precision-guided bombs.

Military officials did not demonstrate the drone's abilities and did not say what range it had, noted Fox News.

In December of 2011, Iran boasted that its military forces had shot down a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 stealth UAV.

The U.S. later admitted that one of its drones is in Iranian possession but did not say that the Iranians shot down the spy plane. Iran then presented video footage of the U.S. drone it shot down.

In late 2014, Iran unveiled what it claimed was a copy of the RQ-170 drone.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Rosh Hashanah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)