The IRGC Ground Forces Successfully Test The “Arbaeen” Multirotor Bomber Drone
On Sunday, June 11, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Ground Forces released video footage of a new Multi-Purpose Quadcopter being tested. The new multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle “Arbaeen” was seen in the video taking off vertically with a payload and then successfully hitting a target shortly after takeoff.
According to Iran’s Tasnim news agency, the new multirotor bomber drone was designed, developed, and manufactured by experts from the IRGC’s Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization as part of the “Arbaeen” project. This lightweight drone, launched as a cost-effective solution to the IRGC Ground Forces’ need to target terrorist groups in the country’s difficult-to-reach northwest and southeast borders, can carry a 7-kilogram (15.4-pound) bomb and drop it from 500 meters (1,640 feet) above the ground. The drone, which is capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), can also carry and launch 10 small missiles aimed at multiple targets at the same time.
The Arbaeen quadcopter first appeared in the Iran Aviation Industries Organization’s UAV catalog for export last year. According to the information in the catalog at the time, the 21 kg drone was designed for missions such as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and day and night transportation and unloading of various types of cargo. The catalog also claimed that the drone could stay in the air for about an hour, have an operational range of 10km, and a top cruise speed of 45km per hour. With the latest news, it has been revealed for the first time that the Arbaeen project has been transferred from the Iran Aviation Industries Organization to the IRGC’s Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization, and its job description and technical specifications have changed.
There is no information on why the project was transferred from the Iranian state-owned Iran Aviation Industries Organization to the IRGC’s Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization. As a result, Arbaeen drones, like other IRGC drones, are very likely to be supplied to Shiite groups in the Middle East. Small quadcopters of this type, which have grown in popularity as a result of the Ukraine-Russian war, have recently been used by terrorist groups in the Middle East for drug trafficking as well as attacks.