Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami announced that the Iranian version of the RQ-170 which has been manufactured through the reverse engineering of the American UAS which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011, will be unveiled to the public soon. “The construction will finish soon and most of the job has been done now,” General Salami told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Tehran on Tuesday. In relevant remarks in October, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said that Iran moved as much as 35 years ahead in building UAS engines by reverse engineering the American RQ-170 which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011.
The RQ-170 engines are the fifth generation and the engines of Iranian unmanned planes are the third generation, Hajizadeh said, adding that to produce the engine we had to spend 35 years on the project.
He said that the home-made version of the RQ-170 captured by the IRGC will make its maiden flight in the near future. In April this year, a senior Iranian parliamentary official announced that Iran has reverse engineered the RQ-170, adding that the Iranian version of the UAS would soon have a test flight.
“The brave personnel of the Armed Forces hunted down the aircraft with their knowledge and science and the Americans protested immediately and called for the return of the UAS,” Chairman of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said in the Northern city of Rasht in April.
Source: FARS News Agency