This week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unveiled a new loitering munition called the Rizwan, which is similar in appearance to Israel’s Hero series drones.
During the flight, the device is transferred to a videographer, who can adjust its route and select a target. The commander of the IRGC ground forces, Mohammad Pakpour, noted that the tests of the Rizwan were successful, and the drone demonstrated high accuracy.
The Iranian army, which is not part of the IRGC, also announced its intention to commission a thousand such drones. The commander of the Iranian ground forces, Kiyoumars Heydari, emphasized that the new UAVs are highly maneuverable and accurate, which will strengthen the reconnaissance capabilities of the troops.
An analysis of the Rizvan images showed its similarity to the Israeli Hero drones manufactured by Uvision. UAVs of this series are popular in the global arms market and are widely used, including by the American military.
The IRGC, through Tasnim News, has unofficially revealed a new loitering munition called ‘Rezvaan’ amid the ongoing ’19th Great Prophet’ (or Eqtedar) military drills, which started five days ago with air defense exercises with various domestic systems at the Natanz nuclear site. pic.twitter.com/k6A7kZ6tdS
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Israeli Hero UAVs are equipped with television and infrared cameras that allow the operator to adjust the route or cancel the mission. Drones can hover over the battlefield and attack the target later, as well as operate in automatic mode. The Hero series includes various models, from the lightweight Hero 30 weighing 3.9 kg with a flight range of 40 km, to the heavy Hero 1250 weighing 155 kg, capable of loitering for up to 14 hours and hitting targets at a distance of over 290 km.
In addition, Rizvan also has similarities with the Russian kamikaze drone Lancet, developed in 2019, which, in turn, borrowed design elements from Israeli devices.
It is worth noting that Israel has already encountered Iranian weapons created on the basis of reverse engineering, for example, the Almas-1 anti-tank system, which is a copy of the Israeli Skype ATGM. The IDF even considered the possibility of creating units using captured Iranian weapons.
Earlier, Kursor reported that Iranian state television showed footage of an underground missile base, which was visited by the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami.