Iran’s Air Defense Base Commander has announced it has built an new unmanned long-range drone (UAV) that can carry a bomb.
Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili broke the news one week after Iranian-financed Hizbullah launched a drone that entered Israeli air space before it was blown up by a missile from an F-16 jet.
Esmaili did not state whether the new drone, dubbed Hazem, can reach Israel.
He “noted that the drone will be used in targeting and identification operations, and for carrying cargo whenever needed,” the government’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
The Iranian commander added that Hazem is not designed for carrying missiles but can carry explosives.
Iran, in recent years, has made a number of claims on civilian and military achievements, including the launching of a project to build a nuclear submarine and the supposedly successful test of long-range missiles which allegedly can reach U.S. bases and Israel.
Karrar, Iran’s first indigenous long-range drone, was unveiled in August 2010, and Iran says it is capable of carrying a military payload of rockets, to carry out bombing missions against ground targets and gather information while flying long distances at a very high speed.
“The country’s indigenous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Shahed 129, unveiled in September, 2012, can carry out combat and reconnaissance missions with its 24-hour nonstop flight capability,” according to Fars.
As usual, authorities assured the world that Iran’s “military might poses no threat to other countries’ and that “the Islamic Republic’s defense doctrine is entirely based on deterrence.”