New video shows Iranian suicide combat UAV drone. Patched together with duct tape.

October 23, 2013 Drones, Iran, Troubled Areas
David Cenciotti

Towards the end of September, the Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan announced that Tehran managed to develop and produce a new type drone, dubbed Ra’ad 85 (Thunder 85).

But, unlike all the other Iranian UAVs, Ra’ad 85 is a suicide remotely piloted vehicle capable of destroying both fixed and mobile targets.

According to the commander, the “mobile bomb-like drone” has been produced in various sizes in order to be used against different types of targets, including enemy helicopters.

duct tape

Iran TV has recently aired a video about the brand new UAV/PGM killer drone. What is somehow surprising is that the Iranian drone (whose shape reminds the one of the Mohajer family of UAVs) seems to be patched with duct tape, that is particularly evident in the nose and gear area.

The patches may have been applied during the testing activity and considered the unmanned aircraft will be crashed into its intended target there’s no need to use state of the art technology and materials.

Still, the presence of the duct tape gives an idea of an amateurish project, even if the fact that footage includes scenes filmed inside a ground control station is a sign that Ra’ad is probably something more than a large RC model.

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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.

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8 Comments

  1. Trying to scare us by calling it a “suicide drone” and not a “cruise missile”? Next time you do a story about a suicide missile, make sure there’s supposed to be a person inside of it before you call it that!

  2. It looks like brown plastic packaging tape, not duct tape.
    Not every tape has to be duct tape you know…

  3. Your sad attempt to imply that using duct tape on these aircraft somehow makes them ineffective flying junk is not something anyone would expect from a “knowledgable” site.

    Embarrassing.

    • No – they’re ineffective flying junk regardless. The duct tape was just an observation.

      • They haven’t prove their effectiveness in combat yet.The tape does not automatically imply those drones are junk.Remember the Soviet cheap and reliable T34 overcame the german technologically superior tanks.

  4. Duk an cover a gas powered drone is coming it’s a propoghanda film it’s not real it’s wishful thinking the one flying was not the mockup shown a couple years ago they had a new jet fighter built same thing a 1/20th scale toy that the generals sat around gawking at

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