"The saeqeh, last drone of the class Simorgh, is able to simultaneously hit up to four targets with smart bombs and with millimeter capacity ". With these words, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Aerospace Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, presented the new low observability drone in Tehran.
"In the UAV field we are on a par with the Americans. Indeed, in technology stealth Americans are trying to stay at our level. The class Simorgh is the Iranian version of the drone Sentinel RQ-170 of the United States ”.
Iran has long claimed to have succeeded in decoding the technology of theRq-170 Sentinel, CIA drone that - according to the Islamic Republic - was captured in December of the 2011. The Sentinel would have been torn down, but not destroyed, after entering Iranian airspace from its eastern border with Afghanistan. The United States has always denied the episode.
Since the 1980, Iran has pursued a program of military self-sufficiency and frequently announces fighter jets, tanks, missiles, submarines, torpedoes and drones to the world. It is also true that most of the media presented to the public are simple mock-up used for propaganda purposes. The thought goes to the hunt Qaher-313.
In September of the 2013, Tehran said it had completed the reengineering process since Sentinel, announcing the sale to third parties of the acquired technology. How true there is in Iranian utterances we will never know, but the United States is not fault-free. Indeed, Iran has considerable experience in the field of reengineering, much of which is provided by the United States in the period in which relations between Tehran and Washington were excellent. Since then, Iran has been able to buy spare parts for most of its American hardware and has had to resort to re-engineering to keep it running.
Iranian media reports that Tehran, over the years, has cut down dozens of US drones and reproduced them after a trial of reverse engineering. According to the Pentagon, Iran would not be able to reveal the technology of the Sentinel, due to the security protocols included in the drones operating in hostile territory.
On November 11th of the 2014, Iran claimed to have succeeded in making its first one fly Sentinel.
