Iran unveiled the unmanned aerial vehicle Mohajer-10 at the Defense Industry Fair on Tuesday, which state media said is an upgraded version of the Mohajer-6 that the country exports.
Various reports indicated that the new drone’s purported features include a 2,000-kilometer range and a 300-kilogram payload, twice the capacity of the older version. The drone is a look-alike of the MQ-9 Reaper manufactured and primarily operated by the United States and exported to the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
According to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency, the UAV has a maximum fuel capacity of 450 liters and a top speed of 210 kilometers per hour, as well as being able to stay airborne for 24 hours. Mohajer-10 can be equipped with electronic warfare equipment and intelligence systems and deliver “various smart bombs with pinpoint accuracy,” it added.
Samuel Bendett, who advises the nonprofit research and analysis organization CNA on autonomous military systems, told Breaking Defense that it is difficult to determine Mohajer-10’s effectiveness because it has no combat flight records yet against existing sophisticated drone countermeasures. Just like Mohajer-6, the new version will likely be “presented for export,” he added.
The Iran Primer, a website that contains expert-authored articles on insights about Iran, indicates that the shorter-range Mohajer-6 attack drones and the long-range Shahed-136 suicide drones sold to Russia in August 2022 count as Iran’s largest UAV exports.
