Israeli Design, Iranian Production?

A video aired on Iranian television shows the Islamic Republic’s new UAV, which is very similar to Elbit Systems' Hermes 450.

A video aired on Iranian television showed a UAV named Shahad-129. From its exterior, the UAV seems as a near-precise copy of the Israeli Hermes-450 UAV. The tube-shaped body and the V-shaped tail are also a near-precise replica of the UAV produced by Elbit Systems.

Iran claims that the UAV can be armed, making it an assault UAV, though the photos that were revealed did not show it while armed. Experts say that it appears as though Iran simply chose the most successful outer appearance of the Hermes-450. However, the capabilities of the UAV it is presenting remain unclear. In the past few years, the Iranian weapons industry has produced copies of various weapon systems via reverse engineering.

Thus far, the systems were primarily those that Iran possessed back from the time of the Shah, which underwent improvements. Now it seems that in the framework of the Iranian UAV production efforts, a decision was made to copy the Israeli UAV’s exterior.

The Israeli UAV has been sold to several countries and which also serves as the basis for the British Watchkeeper project intended for providing intelligence capabilities to the British Artillery Corps.