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Iranian TV footage in December 2011 showed military officials examining a captured US RQ-170 spy platform. Iran claims to have now flown a reverse-engineered copy of this UAV. Source: PA Photos
Iran has flown a reverse-engineered copy of the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) it captured from the United States in 2011, state media reported on 10 November.
The announcement that an Iranian version of the classified UAV has flown was made by the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) aerospace division, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizade, according to the Tasnim News Agency . The announcement was made to coincide with the the anniversary of the death in a bomb blast in 2011 of Brigadier General Hassan Tehrani-Moqaddam, the architect of Iran's missile programme.
On 4 December 2011 the IRGC brought down the RQ-170 after it has crossed into Iranian airspace near the city of Kashmar, in the northeast of the country, from Afghanistan. Shortly after, the intact aircraft was displayed on state TV, seeming to support Iranian claims that they had 'hacked' the UAV and forced it to land (Iran has not said exactly how it brought down the UAV, except to say that it was 'commandeered' by one of its electronic warfare units) .
In May 2012, Brig Gen Hajizade announced that his personnel had deciphered and reverse-engineered the technology behind the RQ-170, and that Iran had begun building its own version based on this information. This reverse-engineered copy was unveiled alongside the original at a ceremony attended by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari on 11 May of this year.
According to the Tasnim News Agency, footage of the first flight will be released shortly.
ANALYSIS
Iran has a history of taking captured US unmanned technology and reverse-engineering it so as to begin its own domestic manufacturing lines. Indeed, in early 2013 state TV showed such a production line turning out Iranian copies of the Insitu (Boeing) ScanEagle and Textron RQ-7 Shadow UAVs.
However, while both the ScanEagle and Shadow incorporate relatively simple technology that isn't too difficult to replicate, the RQ-170 supposedly represents the cutting edge of US stealth technology and so would present a far more difficult challenge.
When the captured US vehicle was first displayed, Iran said that it had 'cracked the code' of the aircraft's workings, backing this claim up by revealing details its scientists had gleaned from the Sentinel's onboard systems. In this way, Iran disclosed that the captured UAV had undertaken technical repairs in California (at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works facility in Palmdale most probably) on 17 October 2010, before returning to Kandahar, Afghanistan, on 19 November 2010.
Even so, while there are some aspects to the Sentinel's design that could be relatively easy to decipher and reverse-engineer - such as its flight management computer, aerodynamics, and flight control systems - others, such as its stealth technology and payload, are not.
When the captured UAV was displayed on Iranian TV it was shown perched on a stand with the underside of the vehicle and its undercarriage obscured from view, suggesting that it likely 'pancaked' into the ground and that its underfuselage-mounted payload was destroyed.
Though details surrounding the payload have not been publicly released, images of the aircraft operating out of Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan suggest that it is a sensor turret shrouded by a 'stealth-treated' window fairing. While the payload housing was shown fitted to the UAV during the unveiling in May, it is not clear if a working payload was actually installed.
In addition to this stealthy payload, the Sentinel's airframe and surfaces will also be largely made up of low observable materials and treatments, none of which Iran is believed to be able to manufacture. Iran's recent attempts at showing off its stealth technology have not shown much promise, most notable among these is the Qaher-313 stealth fighter, which was met with almost universal derision when it was unveiled in early 2013.
If the Qaher-313 represents the pinnacle of Iranian aerospace technology, then some doubt has to be cast upon any claims that the reverse-engineered RQ-170 Sentinel UAV is anything more than a superficial copy of the US aircraft, lacking any of the original's stealth and advanced payload capabilities.
From Janes Defence.
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發表於 2014-11-11 14:57:47
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