Posted on 08/24/2010 2:44:12 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Iran UAV bomber via South Africa?
By Stephen Trimble
The Kerrar UAV unveiled by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bears a striking (no pun intended) resemblance to the South African Skua target drone. Flightglobal's Tel Aviv-based correspondent Arie Egozi is reporting that Israeli officials believe the basic design is based on the Skua, with the engine moved to the top of the fuselage and the wing straightened. If true, it will be interesting to find out how the Skua technology matriculated from Cape Town to Tehran, especially given the strong links between the Israeli and South African defense industries. A four-year-old article on Flightglobal, however, may provide a clue. The article says have Skua manufacturer Denel's three export customers for the target drone have "also recently taken to offering use of their Skua systems to third nations as the basis of a training services business".
See photos of Kerrar (top) and Skua (bottom) below.
Seems an odd use of the verb, "matriculate". Wouldn't gotten past me as editor. I probably would have said "proliferated" or "was transferred". Was the writer trying to be cute?
I’ll take obvious answers for $100.00 Alex; Beep, beep, MONEY? Correct!
Fox: drones by definition are unmanned.
They might as well just paint “TARGET” on the side and be done with it.
Oh look, a modified ugly version of a V2.... =.=
Iran’s drone bears a striking resemblance to several very old drone and missile systems.
V1 is more like it.
resemblance to the South African Skua target drone
Looks like a jet powered “Cherry Blossom” or Baka bomb
from wwII.
The level of finish looks typically Iranian.
Iran already operated US supplied Beech MQM-107s supplied during the Shah period. They produced their own copy and paraded it a few years ago.
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/73912539
This design pre-dates even the South African drone. These are all based on US designs by Beech. The design has simply been updated to do away with the under fuselage podded engine.
See concept of twin-fin tails on Beech Streaker drone from 1980s. This was an update from the MQM-107.
http://www.vectorsite.net/twuav_02.html
Looks like they flipped the engine so they could add a drop tank and get some more range.
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