IRGC Showcases Downed and Captured Western Drones (Video, Photographs)South Front

Click to see full-size image

On September 21^st, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) organized a showcase of downed and destroyed or captured Western unmanned aerial vehicles.

The exhibition is called “Hunting Vultures.”

#Iran displays US #drones captured over its territory pic.twitter.com/R6DwfHXF1x

— Press TV (@PressTV) September 21, 2019

It presented the US RQ-4 Global Hawk, which was downed on June 21^st, 2019 after violating Iranian airspace.

The IRGC also displayed the Aerosonde HQ vertical take-off and landing drone belonging to the US Army used for multi-intelligence payloads such as electronic warfare and communications relay in a single flight.

Desert Hawk was another American drone showcased in the exhibition. It has a length of 0.86 meters with a weight of 3.2 kg. It has an endurance of about an hour with an electric motor driving a quiet pusher propeller.

A British drone was also presented, the Phoenix. It is an all-weather, day or night, real-time combat surveillance drone. The twin-boom UAV provides surveillance through its surveillance pod, from which the imagery is data linked to a ground control station (GCS) that also controls the aircraft in flight.

Back in 2015, Iran also downed a US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft with minimal damage. It wasn’t part of the exhibition this time round.

Iran has a collection of various US, Israeli and British drones, some of which were also presented at the “exhibition” include US’ MQ1, MQ9, Shadow, ScanEagle, RQ-170 and BAMS-D as well as the Israeli Hermes. Photographs can be seen below.

During the exhibition, IRGC Commander Hossein Salami made the statement that it would never allow any aggression on its soil and has the capability to take down any aerial vehicles, unmanned or otherwise.

Which is clearly backed up by evidence.

Salami further said that any “limited aggression” against Iran would result in a full retaliation by the Islamic Republic, which would be devastating in his words.

“We will hit anyone who violates our borders,” he said, adding Iran has so far demonstrated only part of its military capability.

The showcase takes place during Sacred Defense Week in Iran. On September 22^nd, there was a ceremony at the mausoleum of Founder of the late Imam Khomeini.

There were other showcases of Iranian equipment, and not only of downed Western drones.

The IRGC also showed a self-propelled gun mount of the Iranian 3rd Khordad air defense system at the exhibition, the one which shot down the RQ-4 Global Hawk.

Following are photographs of the self-propelled gun mount, and the downed UAVs.