HESA Karrar
Karrar UAV seen at the 8th International Iran Air Show on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf.
Role Multirole[1]
National origin Iran
Manufacturer Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA)
Introduction 2010
Status In production[2]
Primary users Iran
Hezbollah
Produced 2010
Developed from Beechcraft MQM-107 Streaker

The HESA Karrar (Persian: کرار) is an Iranian jet-powered target drone manufactured by Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA) since 2010. The Karrar is a derivative of the American 1970s-era Beechcraft MQM-107 Streaker target drone, probably incorporating elements from the South African Skua, with hardpoints added for munitions. The Karrar was developed during the Ahmadinejad presidency.[3]

As a target drone, the Karrar is used to train air-defense crews by simulating an aerial target. The Karrar is regularly spotted at Iranian air-defense drills, and is believed to be the replacement for Iran's aging American-built MQM-107 target drones.[4] Karrar jet unmanned-aerial-vehicles are recently equipped with Shahab-e-Saqeb (missile) and with the Majid heat-seeking 8 km range missile in order to hit air targets.[5][6][7][8][9][10]

Design

a Karrar, seen in the traditional blaze orange color of target drones, makes a Rocket Assist Take-Off (RATO)

The Karrar has a small, clipped delta wing mounted low to a cylindrical, blunt-nosed fuselage. It has a dorsal air intake for the engine and twin arrowhead-shaped endplate tailfins mounted high on the fuselage.[2]

A Karrar with a Mk 82 bomb mounted on the centerline hardpoint.

The Karrar uses a rocket assist system to take off and is recovered by parachute.[2] It is also claimed to be capable of air launch.[2] Iranian officials have said the aircraft has surveillance capabilities, but the Karrar has no visible EO/IR sensors.[2] The Karrar is believed to have an autopilot system with INS and/or GPS guidance, and may have terrain following capability as well. The Karrar is capable of both high and low altitude flight,[11] and of day and night flight.[12] It can follow a pre-programmed flight path, which can also be updated in flight.[12]

The Karrar can carry one 500 lb Mk 82 general-purpose bomb, with claimed precision guidance, on its centerline hardpoint. Alternatively, it can carry two Nasr-1 anti-ship missiles,[lower-alpha 1] two Kowsar anti-ship missiles, or two 250 pound Mk 81 general-purpose bombs on the underwing stations, or (since 2019) a Balaban satellite-guided glide bomb.[2][14][15] It is believed that carrying weapons substantially reduces the Karrar's operating range.[11]

Military experts quickly noted that Karrar bears an obvious resemblance to the US Beechcraft MQM-107 Streaker target drone designed in the 1970s and exported to Iran before the Iranian revolution. According to a report from Denel Dynamics, however, the Karrar is not an exact clone of the MQM-107 Streaker as some design elements have been copied from the Denel Dynamics Skua as well.[16] Technical data on the Skua was reportedly sold by one of the Skua's export customers to Iran.[2] Overall, the Karrar is not an exact copy of the MQM-107, and multiple design changes have been made.[11]

Operational history

Iranian Minister of Defense Ali Shamkhani inspects a scale model of a Karrar prototype around 2004.

Development of the Karrar was underway as of 2002, possibly under the name "Hadaf-1".[17] A subscale model of the Karrar was also seen around 2004. The Karrar is also known as the "Ababil Jet"; the Ababil is an unrelated UAV also offered by the same manufacturer, HESA.[12] Iran said the Karrar took "500,000 hours" to develop, but independent analysts say this is unlikely.[18]

The Karrar was unveiled on August 23, 2010, one day after the activation of a nuclear reactor in Bushehr, by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It was framed as a "long-range bomber drone,"[19] and is the first long-range UAV manufactured in Iran.[20]

Multiple sources report that the Karrar has been exported to Hezbollah.[21][22] The Karrar has supposedly been used in the Syrian Civil War.[23]

Defense Update suggests in particular that the Karrar could be useful for using cruise missiles to target ground-based radars and naval ships.[11] In 2018, Daily Beast reporter Adam Rawnsley said that the Karrar, despite Iranian claims, does not possess the capacity to deploy weapons and is merely a target drone.[3]

Today, Karrar is regularly used by Iran's air defense force for training. Karrar target drones have been used to test Mersad SAM systems,[24] S-300PMU-2 SAM systems,[25] Sayyad-2 SAM systems,[26] Fakour-90 air-to-air missiles,[27] and Sayyad-3 SAM systems.[28]

Iran reportedly used the Karrar to deploy munitions for the first time in a 2020 exercise.[29]

Operators

Non-state user

Specifications

Data from Jane's All the World's Aircraft: Unmanned 2014-2015[2]

General characteristics

  • Crew: none
  • Capacity: 227 kg (500 lb) payload
  • Length: 4 m (13 ft 1 in)
  • Wingspan: 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
  • Max takeoff weight: 700 kg (1,543 lb)
  • Powerplant: 1 × Tolloue 5 or Microturbo TRI 60-5 turbojet , 4.2–4.4 kN (940–990 lbf) thrust (est.)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 900 km/h (560 mph, 490 kn)
  • Range: 1,000 km (620 mi, 540 nmi)
  • Combat range: 500 km (310 mi, 270 nmi)

Armament

  • Hardpoints: 3 , with provisions to carry combinations of:

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Karrar (UAV).

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

References

  1. ↑ Iran Military Power (PDF). Defense Intelligence Agency. 2019. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-16-095157-2.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Martin Streetly, ed. (2014). Jane's All the World's Aircraft: Unmanned 2014-2015. London: IHS Jane's. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-0710630964.
  3. 1 2 Adam Rawnsley [@arawnsley] (July 20, 2018). "First off, Karrar is not a UCAV. Yes, yes, I know Iranian propaganda has billed it as a UCAV but it was rolled out during the Ahmadinejad era when lots of silly claims were made about Iran's drone capabilities" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. ↑ "Adam Rawnsley on Twitter". Twitter. 18 May 2018.
  5. ↑ Introduction of Shahab Saqeb defense missile + images fardanews.com, Retrieved 11 January 2021
  6. ↑ Shahab Saqeb defense missile (+ photo) asriran.com, Retrieved 11 January 2021
  7. ↑ Iran Successfully Tests New Homegrown Missile System in Drill tasnimnews.com, Retrieved 11 January 2021
  8. ↑ "Iran's Karrar Drone Armed with Air-to-Air Missiles". Tasnim News Agency. 2023-10-05. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  9. ↑ "Iranian Jet-Powered Drone Armed with New Air-Based Missile". Tasnim News Agency. 2023-10-22. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
  10. ↑ "Iranian Air Defense Gets Interceptor Drone Armed with AAM". Tasnim News Agency. 2023-12-10. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Karrar - Iran's New Jet-Powered Recce and Attack Drone". Defense Update. Aug 2010. Archived from the original on 2012-03-08.
  12. 1 2 3 Yuri Lyamin (21 July 2017). "Иранская экспозиция на МАКС-2017. Часть.2".
  13. ↑ "Iran Unveils Domestically Produced Bomber Drone". Defense News. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
  14. ↑ Iran Unveils New Smart Bombs tasnimnews.com
  15. ↑ Iran holds unveiling event for precision guided bombs janes.com
  16. ↑ Keith Campbell. "New Iranian unmanned warplane not a SA copy, except, maybe, for the tailplane". Engineering News. Retrieved 2010-09-10.
  17. ↑ Galen Wright (February 5, 2011). "Ababil UAV". thearkenstone.blogspot.com.
  18. ↑ Noah Shachtman (23 August 2010). "Iran's Robotic 'Ambassador of Death' is More Envoy of Annoyance (Updated)". Wired.
  19. ↑ Vogelaar, Rob (August 22, 2010). "ran Unveils New Karar Bomber Drone". Aviation News. Archived from the original on August 26, 2010. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  20. ↑ Daragahi, Borzou (August 23, 2010). "Iran Reveals its Own Drone". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  21. ↑ "Israel Targets Hezbollah Weaponry in Syria". worldview.stratfor.com. Dec 9, 2014.
  22. ↑ Hassan Abbas (24 November 2010). "Is Lebanon's Hezbollah Equipped with New Iranian Drones?". Jamestown Foundation. Archived from the original on 8 February 2018.
  23. ↑ Mona Alami (9 February 2017). "Hezbollah's war in Aleppo: Victory at any cost, even to civilians". Middle East Eye.
  24. ↑ @EnglishFars (May 4, 2014). "6/6: The Mersad system was test-fired after a home-made missile named Shalamcheh successfully hit a Karrar-type drone" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 18, 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2021 – via Twitter.
  25. ↑ @BabakTaghvaee (March 2, 2017). "Finally #Iranian_Air_Defense_Force #IRIADF tested the S-300PMU2 against Karrar target drone in #Semnan missile test range, #Iran today" (Tweet). Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2021 – via Twitter.
  26. ↑ @BabakTaghvaee (December 28, 2016). "#IRGC Navy Sayyad-2 SAM shot-down Karrar drone at 37,000ft over #Bushehr South of #Iran #Persian_Gulf. Exercise Defenders of Velayat's Sky-7" (Tweet). Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2021 – via Twitter.
  27. ↑ @BabakTaghvaee (July 23, 2018). "For first time in February 2017, the AIM-90A semi-active radar homing variant of Fakkur-90 medium range air to air missile was successfully tested by an #Iran" (Tweet). Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2021 – via Twitter.
  28. ↑ @BabakTaghvaee (July 22, 2017). "First successful test of Babaiee missile industries Sayyad-3 long range SAM against Karrar target drone at missile test range, Semnan, #Iran" (Tweet). Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2021 – via Twitter.
  29. ↑ Sykes, Patrick (November 3, 2020). "Iran Uses Bomber Drones for First Time in Military Drills". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  1. ↑ (or maybe only one, sources differ; see [13])
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