A better look at the images of the Iranian drone emerged so far highlighted something interesting.
New screenshots coming from Syria give a better view of the Shahed 129 spotted over Damascus on Apr. 10.
Noteworthy, such photos show that the version used by the Syrian Armed Forces of the made-in-Iran UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), is sensibly different by the one unveiled in September 2013 in Tehran.
Indeed, the remotely piloted aircraft features a nose section whose shape resembles that of a U.S. Predator/Reaper and a tall antenna mounted on top of it.
Judge by comparing the image on top with the following one:
Image credit: U.S. Air Force
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This seemingly extensive modifications make the drone’s front part more similar to an MQ-9/1 than a Israeli Hermes 450 model.
Iran is not unfamiliar with domestic modifications to western drones: they have been able to recover/capture some U.S. remotely piloted aircraft, including a Scan Eagle (and the famous stealthy RQ-170).
The question is: did they put their hands on some parts of an MQ-9 as well?
H/T to Kasra Ghanbari for the heads-up
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