Four Iran-made RQ-170 drones will start
operational flights by the end of this year.
Four Iran-made RQ-170 drones - manufactured
through the reverse engineering of a similar
American pilotless plane that was downed by
Iran in 2011, will start operational flights by the
end of this year, senior IRGC officials
announced on Wednesday, November 12, 2014,
adding that the country may gift one of its
home-made RQ-170s to the US.
"We have plans to bring into operation, at least,
four indigenized RQ-170 drones for missions by
the end of this (Iranian) year (March 20),"
Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force
Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said on
Wednesday after the state-run TV displayed the
footages of the first flight of an Iran-made
RQ-170 drone.
The Iranian version of the RQ-170 drone has
been manufactured through the reverse
engineering of the US drone which was tracked
and hunted down in Iran late in 2011 and has
been equipped by the IRGC with bombing
capability.
"We will not extradite the US RQ-170 drone
since it is a (war) trophy, but if the US
sanctions against Iran are lifted, maybe we will
give the US an Iranian model of the drone,"
Hajizadeh said.
He said that the Iranian version of the RQ-170
has been built through a combination of the US
designs and ideas and those of the Iranian
experts.
On Monday, Hajizadeh announced that the
Iranian version of the RQ-170 drone with the
capability of conducting bombing and
reconnaissance missions has had its first flight
after tests.
"We had promised to fly the final model of
RQ-170 in the second half of the current
(Iranian) year (which started on March 21) and
this has happened and the footage of its flight
will be released soon," Hajizadeh told reporters
in Tehran on Monday morning.
Elaborating on the Iranian version of the
RQ-170 drone which has been manufactured
through the reverse engineering of the US drone
which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late
in 2011 and has been equipped by the IRGC
with bombing capability,Hajizadeh had
informed in September that "the prototype
model of this drone (which was 60% smaller
than the original drone in size) flew about three
months ago and God willing, the final model of
the plane will fly this year".
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