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Iran Unveils Its First UAV Bomber
ms_gen writes "Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled today the first UAV bomber produced by Iran. The drone, named Karrar (farsi for Striker) can carry various types of bombs. It can reach up to 900 km/h in speed and has a range of 1000 kilometers (620 miles). The Iranian president mentions that 'Karrar is a symbol of the progress of defence technology in Iran.'"
You mean 1944? That's when UAVs became commonplace.
Video of a test launch and production.
http://vodpod.com/watch/4282312-iranian-karrar-drone
Looks alot like a V-1 or Loon but with hard points on the wings and turbojet instead of pulse jet. So late 50s technology designed with CAD. Probably a 30-40% failure rate on them too, that's standard for first or second generation cruise missiles/drones.
Looks like a German V1 if you ask me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-1_flying_bomb
Except the Germans had the sense to put the bomb inside.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I don't know about this particular area, but Iran's industrial sector is more advanced than you might think. There is an extensive auto industry. Though it manufactures under licenses from foreign companies (the most common vehicle is a variant of the Peugeot 206), modifications have been designed and implemented in Iran. Iran is no banana republic.
Last I checked, all the massive AirCraft [sic] carriers were owned by the US Navy.
What is the airspeed of a fully laden swallow?
eventually the US is going to have to realize that the west/Russia simply can't have a nuclear monopoly
... "China" or something like that. I suppose you'd rather forget about the UK, and France, and Pakistan, and South Africa, and India ... why, I'm not sure. But you have an odd working definition of "monopoly" (which is funny, because even in the way you used it, you implied that the US and Russia are somehow a single entity. Which is ridiculous.
What are you talking about? You do understand that there are many other countries with nuclear weapons, right? First, there's that funny litte country out east
War breeds more war, diplomacy can keep peace. Look at WWI which bred WWII
What are you talking about? It was diplomacy that bought Germany enough time to gear up for WWII. Google for "peace in our time" just for a refresher.
WWII which bred the Cold War
Have you actually ever studied any of this? The Cold War was between, essentially, the Soviet Block and everyone else (primarily the US and NATO allies). This wasn't about anything that happened in WWII, it was about the communist totalitarians running the USSR looking to forcibly model the rest of the world in the same fashion. It was the deterrent threat of an unwinnable nuclear war that ended that horrible regime.
And I'm sure if you looked further you could see that there were conflicts which caused WWI
You're completely missing the point. It wasn't previous conflicts (as is, past battles/wars) that "caused" WWI. It was fundamental differences between regional cultures, economies, resources, etc. Physical conflict errupted as a means by which to resolve those differences - because talking about them did not, of course, actually change anything. The entire history of Europe involves thousands of years of territorial, religious, and familial squabbling over turf, power, and resources. War (against the Germans, twice) was what ended that. War with the Soviets never happened, and their system collapsed under its own ponderous, confiscatory, non-productive, Nanny State weight.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
The US doesn't threaten them because they are allies, the moment Pakistan stops cooperating with the "war on terror" the media and government will be just as hostile to them as we are to Iran.
Appeasement didn't work because Germany was trying to expand its borders, not simply maintain a military. Iran is not trying to expand its rule, Iran just wants to have a larger military force. In fact, treaties from WWI that prevented Germany from having a strong military force was the very reason Hitler could rise to power it was also the thing that pissed off Japan.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
There is no justification. No one is arguing that Iran is a free and pluralistic society, simply that they have been invaded and meddled with before and their security concerns are legitimate even though the regime sucks horribly.
On the other hand shooting its own citizens is only an issue when the country happens to be at odds with the US. Compared with other countries in the region, Iran is much more open and free. The elections might be bogus but there is ample discussion and participation when compared to "moderate" countries such as Egypt or Jordan (which sometimes is portrayed as a thriving democracy in the media!!!). Don't even let me get started on the kingdom of horrors (for the latest, check http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE012902010&lang=e&rss=recentnews) which is also often portrayed as a moderate country progressing towards freedom!!!???
I've driven all those cars, and every year that rankings come out, the ones with best quality are the ones with least of local modifications (206 included). Every few years they announce a brand new "National Car" initiative which turns out to be a hybrid of several foreign designs put together usually poorly and then after it fails in the market, it becomes the mandatory car for government organizations. Considering 80% of economy is owned and run by the government, the manufacturing will survive with just one customer. In a few years, rinse, repeat, blah blah. Proof of the massive failure of auto industry in Iran is their constant lack of ability to penetrate even third world markets and even though they sell them to foreign markets at a fraction of the domestic price.
Generally speaking, while the state of industry in some areas is better than Iraq, Afghanistan and few neighbouring countries, it's nothing remotely comparable to west or even Turkey. Along with improving relations with China, the few barely competitive sectors are being bought one by one by the Chinese, then begin importing and labeling Chinese products to sell domestically as Iranian-made. The incompetence of government, powerful grip of Revolutionary Guards over virtually all industries and their profit at any cost MO as well as population's general ignorance are all contributors.
Iran's auto industry was founded almost the same time as South Korea. Saddens me to look at their global empire and our local disaster.
Whether you call it Farsi or Persian, Karrar is neither. It's Arabic and while many Arabic words and phrases are used in everyday Farsi, "Karrar" is definitely not one. As a native Farsi speaker with some knowledge of Arabic, I had to look the meaning up. Generally, the government has some fetish of putting Arabic names on everything, especially anything military related to make them sound more "holy" since Arabic is language of Islam.
Why are you worried about Turkey?
#1) Iran has demonstrated (via press release) the equivalent of a model airplane with a camera. They don't have the military data network capability to reliably deliver these anywhere outside their borders. Furthermore, Turkey has one of the largest and most powerful air forces outside of the major superpowers with approximately a thousand aircraft, and over 200 F-16's (mostly modern CCIP variety, and the ability to produce them locally). I wouldn't take Iranian air aggression too seriously.
more importantly it's who your friends are:
#2) Turkey is a NATO member country. That means that if Iran (an external force by NATO definition) attacks Turkey, the most powerful military powers on the planet are obligated to rip Iran a new one...
looks more like Tu-143 or Tu-141
You can't handle the truth.
A UAV bomber can be used against enemy aircraft carriers, for example.
No, its too slow to evade surface to air missiles.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I couldn't agree less! Iran will *never* be able to compete with US in air superiority. The most they can expect is to make things more difficult. For instance, reducing the ability of carriers to operate near Iranian coasts. This sort of UAV does just that. I'm not simply imagining this. Israel used to bomb Lebanon from the sea. Very cheap, very easy and safe. Until the 2006 war, that is, when Hezbollah used small UAV to almost sink one these boats. What happened after that? No more bombing from the sea.
Building a fighter is no easy task. They would have problems building decent gas turbines. Their only option would be to buy aircraft which is not exactly cheap. How many would they be able to gather? I would guess about a 100 or so. The US could have 100 *flying* at any one time. It would be just a waste of resources. Big and expensive targets to shoot.
The UAVs on the other hand are small, easy to store and move and can be very effective on specific targets such as ships. It would be a good deterrent against ship movements on the Persian Gulf (including tankers).
"Iran's industrial sector is more advanced than you might think"
To be clear, you're talking about a country that sits on a giant reserve of oil, but has to import gasoline because they have no refining capacity. Iran's industrial sector is a fucking embarrassment.
You're talking about Tehran, a city whose building codes will be cited as the cause of the worst single humanitarian disaster in history when the big one finally hits NW Iran. 10 million dead is going to be an interesting psychic moment for the Islamic Republic.
Iran's great defense is their mountains. No one wants to fight from valley-to-valley killing thousands of poorly armed soldiers trying to fight a country that's one bad natural disaster away from being the next North Korea or Pakistan.
Even Saddam Hussein was only dumb enough to try it once.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
Air war is as much about intelligence these days as anything else. Long gone are the days of the dog fights. Now, at least if you are talking the US, you engage targets beyond visual range with extremely smart guided missiles.
So if you want to have an airforce that can deal with the US you need four things:
1) Something to counter their AWACS. It might be stealthy jets, it might be good jamming hardware, whatever the case you have to have something to stop that. Otherwise, they'll know ever every single thing in the air is, with pinpoint accuracy. This can be crossdecked directly to new fighters, or simply told to older ones, so their jets can come in without ever turning on a radar. They don't even need them on to fire with AWACS coverage.
2) Something to pick up their planes. The US has a bunch of stealthy craft these days. Even the F/A-18Fs aren't easy to pick up and the F-22As are close to invisible unless the fire, never mind the B2-Bs. You need to have some technology to be able to find those, otherwise they'll pick off your planes, destroy your bases, etc and you won't be able to do anything about it. I don't know if there is such a technology, but you'd need to have some reasonable way to find their craft to kill them
3) Good night fighting ability. The US loves night attacks, because they are really good at it and most people are really bad at it. So you need the equipment and the training to have your jets as effective at night as during the day. Otherwise they'll simply wait until your air cover becomes weak at night and destroy the air bases.
4) Long range, highly effective missiles. Even if you can find their craft and so on you still have to engage them at a long range. The US has long range missiles that are hard to jam, you have to have the same if you are to have a realistic chance in air combat.
Without those four things, the US WILL have air superiority. They'll simply shoot down any fighters, bomb air bases (which can be done with extreme accuracy) and then blast SAM sites.
Don't get started on the names of recent Middle East US military operations... they're almost oxymoron.
I personally found the name "Operation Iraqi Liberation" quite straight-forward and descriptive.
"Hezbollah did not appear out of Iran's magic crystal ball. It appeared directly as a result of Israeli and American forces invading Lebanon in 1982." Bullshit. Hezbollah was born from the Shi'ite minority in Lebanon from the civil war they helped start.
"We destroyed the PLO and got Hamas." The PLO imploded through their own ineptitude and inability to strike a deal with Israel. There will always be a cadre of mullahs and imam skulking in their mosques praying for the day to return when they ruled the Muslims instead of government. To place the blame for them on the West is simply silly.
"Hezbollah did not appear out of Iran's magic crystal ball. It appeared directly as a result of Israeli and American forces invading Lebanon in 1982."
Bullshit. Hezbollah was born from the Shi'ite minority in Lebanon from the civil war they helped start.
Hezbollah first emerged in 1982 as a militia in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, also known as Operation Peace for Galilee, set on resisting the Israeli occupation of Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war.
The PLO imploded through their own ineptitude and inability to strike a deal with Israel.
The governing PLO was viewed as a terrorist organisation by Israel and the U.S. and was constantly undermined and accused of corruption. The people were subject to sanctions. Israel and the U.S. refused to negotiate with the PLO and said there would be no "additional Palestinian state..." (Jordan already being a Palestinian state), and "no change in the status of Judea, Samaria and Gaza other than in accordance with the basic guidelines of the [Israeli] Government". Maybe it is hard to strike a deal when the other side refuses to negotiate?
They have been doing most of their moves quietly. There is a 'public' flight from Venezuela airline that move between Venezuela, Syria, and Iran. The only problem is that when the publica tries to book a flight, you can not get on it.
Yeah, this hit the 'news' recently, and its a load of twaddle. The actual route is a circular route between Tehran-Beirut-Damascus-Caracus (Iran Air flight 744) and the 'issue' of not being able to book a seat on it was raised by an Israeli intelligence operative.
The problem is, you can certainly book a flight on it, there are even aviation enthusiasts that have published trip reports (http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/107603).
Put your self in an Iranian Ayatollah's sandals for a moment. The <rational arguments supposedly followed by theocratic muslim rules>
Yeah that'll work. It's not like they ever did something irrational like sending their own (*ahem* their followers') kids into minefields carrying plastic keys to heaven, right ? (you know, like the palestinian practice of throwing kids on the street just before an Israeli jeep just so they can claim the IDF murders children).
I mean muslims have seriously fucked up religion and don't have a history where sanity prevailed, you know, even for a few seconds.