The Meraj-532 one-way-attack UAV shown on a launch vehicle. (Tasnim News Agency)
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) has developed a new type of one-way-attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called the Meraj-532, the Tasnim News Agency reported on 9 April.
It cited General Ali Kouhestani, the head of the IRGC Ground Force's Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organisation, as saying the Meraj-532 ‘suicide drone' had been successfully tested. He said the UAV has been designed so it can be rapidly set up for launch from a vehicle and is powered by a piston engine. It has a range of 450 km, an endurance of three hours, a 50 kg warhead, and can fly at 12,000 ft.
Tasnim released a video showing a UAV with an X-tail being launched from a frame mounted on the bed of a moving pickup truck and hitting a shipping container on a range. It had a pitot tube for gathering data for an onboard navigation system, indicating it has an autonomous flight capability, as well as an antenna that would enable an operator to either control it from the ground or update its target co-ordinates during flight.
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