Iran’s army has taken delivery of 1,000 new long range drones, likely to guard against any future conflict with Israel.
The drones would increase “the army's long-range strike power against distant targets”, state-linked Tasnim news agency said. Iran said that the drones had a range of 2,000km and included Arash drones, which have been used in attacks against Israel.
In April, Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, low flying cruise missiles and drones against targets in Israel, almost all of which were shot down by a quickly assembled coalition including the US, Britain and France. The cost of intercepting the huge attack was put at about $1 billion and in some cases US F-15s involved in the operation ran out of missiles going after drones, shooting them down at close range with autocannons.
Israel retaliated, prompting a second major attack in October, and large-scale Israeli air raids against air defences and military sites.
Army commander Maj Gen Abdolrahim Mousavi announced the drone acquisition, alongside Defence Minister Brig Gen Aziz Nasirzadeh, on Sunday.
Iran already has one of the world’s largest drone arsenals, and has supplied a variety of domestically designed and produced drones to the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran-backed militias in Iraq. Iran has also supplied its drone technology to Russia, which mass produces the weapons for its war in Ukraine at the Alabuga special economic zone.
Tasnim said the drones have the “capacity for sustained, autonomous flight without a need for external control.” Iranian drones such as the Shahed 136 can reach targets on complex preprogrammed routes, causing problems for air defence units which are forced to spread out over vast areas. They fly “nap-of-the-earth,” at very low altitude to avoid radar beams, which can be obstructed in hills and valleys.
To do this, they use satellite navigation, but weak signals from the US GPS system or Russia’s GLONASS satellite navigation system can easily be jammed or “spoofed”, to trick receivers on drones into changing course.
Israel has disrupted satellite communications during security threats to thwart drone attacks. The drones have a backup inertial navigation system, which calculates the position of the drone based on internal measurements of altitude, bearing and speed, but this is said to be inaccurate, according to Ukrainian defence analyst Oleh Katkov, especially over longer distances.
Newer drones such as the jet-powered Shahed 238 also feature inertial navigation systems. According to Conflict Armament Research, an NGO which has studied wreckage of Iranian drones, and the Institute for Science and International Security, a think tank, their navigation systems rely almost entirely on smuggled Western microelectronics.
Iran said the drones were stealthy due to their “small radar cross section”, a feature of the relatively small weapons which are often not detected at long range.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
MATCH INFO
World Cup qualifier
Thailand 2 (Dangda 26', Panya 51')
UAE 1 (Mabkhout 45 2')
BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP
Group A
Paraguay
Japan
Switzerland
USA
Group B
Uruguay
Mexico
Italy
Tahiti
Group C
Belarus
UAE
Senegal
Russia
Group D
Brazil
Oman
Portugal
Nigeria
SPECS
%3Cp%3EEngine%3A%20Supercharged%203.5-litre%20V6%0D%3Cbr%3EPower%3A%20400hp%0D%3Cbr%3ETorque%3A%20430Nm%0D%3Cbr%3EOn%20sale%3A%20Now%0D%3Cbr%3EPrice%3A%20From%20Dh450%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Biography
Favourite Meal: Chicken Caesar salad
Hobbies: Travelling, going to the gym
Inspiration: Father, who was a captain in the UAE army
Favourite read: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
Favourite film: The Founder, about the establishment of McDonald's
Masters%20of%20the%20Air
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Cary%20Joji%20Fukunaga%2C%20Dee%20Rees%2C%20Anna%20Boden%2C%20Ryan%20Fleck%2C%20Tim%20Van%20Patten%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Austin%20Butler%2C%20Callum%20Turner%2C%20Anthony%20Boyle%2C%20Barry%20Keoghan%2C%20Sawyer%20Spielberg%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
