Syrian rebels have captured an intact (Made in Iran) “Pahpad” drone. And here’s a video showing some details.

Many videos showing the so-called “Pahpad” drone, made in Iran and used by Syria to spy on the clashes in Homs were uploaded by the rebels since the beginning of the uprising in Syria.

All the footage depicted the made in Iran UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) from the ground or what remained of the crashed ones.

Until Jun. 12, when a new video showed a seemingly intact “Pahpad” in the hands of the rebels.

The new video provides close-up images of the mysterious drone: the engine, the wings, some numbers (as aircraft’s individual codes), as well as a turret, most probably the one of the FLIR (Forward Looking Infra Red) camera.

Noteworthy, the airframe’s base color is light blue, as in the first images of the Iranian drone published on the Mashreghnews.ir website, with a sand-colored coat.

“Pahpad” (پهپاد) is not actually the official name of the UAV but the short form of “parandeye hedayat pazire az rahe door” (“پرنده هدایت پذیر از راه دور”) that is the Persian for “remotely piloted aircraft”.

H/T to Eliot Higgins aka “Brown Moses” for the heads-up

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About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.