Iran unveils ‘suicide drone’

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday said they had developed a ‘suicide drone’ capable of delivering explosives to blow up targets at sea and on land.

The new drone is primarily for maritime surveillance and “has not been designed to be armed with missiles,” the Tasnim news agency, which is close to the Guards, reported.

“(But) it can carry heavy payloads of explosives for combat missions to launch suicide attacks. Flying at a high cruising speed near the surface of the water, the aircraft can collide with the target and destroy it, either a vessel or an onshore command centre,” it added. The report further said the drone was designed to fly as low as half-a-metre above the water at a speed of 250 km/ hour but could reach an altitude of 900 metres. 

As with previous drone announcements by Iran, the news agency released photographs of the aircraft on the ground, but no footage of it flying. “It has an advanced military camera with the capability of being used at night and during the day, as well as the possibility of being used in damp sea conditions,” Tasnim said.