Unveiling Brand New Loitering Munition During Massive Drills, Iran Sends Adversaries Clear Message

Unveiling Brand New Loitering Munition During Massive Drills, Iran Sends Adversaries Clear Message

Sputnik

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps held the final stage of the Great Prophet 19 exercises on Thursday, with massive wargame, which kicked off last Saturday, taking place against the background of heightened regional tensions, escalated by Israeli and US threats to bomb Iran's nuclear program.

The IRGC unveiled the Rezvan (lit. ‘Gatekeeper of Paradise’) loitering munition on the final day of its Great Prophet 19 drills Thursday.

The small, portable, container-tube launched UAV system features a distinct foldout wing configuration not unlike Russia’s latest Lancet drone models, as well as an optical module in its nose including thermal imaging capabilities allowing operators to guide the drone toward a target.

The drone has a stated range of 20 km, and a 20-minute flight endurance, and is said to be designed for use by the IRGC Ground Force’s rapid response counterterrorism forces, including in mountainous or otherwise difficult to reach terrain.

“Our drones carried out several rounds of firing and drone operations, and in our scenario, we successfully destroyed hypothetical enemies and terrorists attacking Iranian bases,” IRGC Ground Forces commander Mohammad Pakpour said on the sidelines of the large-scale drills in Kermanshah province, western Iran.

In a related development, the Iranian Army announced Thursday that it would take delivery of 1,000 drones in the coming days. Last year at about this time, the Army took delivery of a large quantity of drones, among them strategic multipurpose Ababil-4 and Ababil-5 UAVs, which can be used for recon, electronic warfare, data collection and aerial combat.

Iran enjoys drone design and manufacturing capabilities unparalleled anywhere in the Middle East, with domestic defense companies creating over 50 different designs, from short-range tactical UAVs and loitering munitions to propeller or rocket-powered long-range reconnaissance, attack and EW drones. Iran’s experience with drones goes back to the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, where they were used for intelligence collection purposes. The nation built up its drone-making prowess, along with a homegrown missile force, over the past four decades.

The Rezvan’s timely unveiling comes amid razor-sharp regional tensions as Israeli and US officials and media threaten to target Iran before Donald Trump’s inauguration, or drag the president-elect into a major conflict with the Islamic Republic. Israel has been looking for a pretext to attack Iran since late 2023, with the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance pulling Tel Aviv into an unprecedented multifront war it has had difficulty extricating itself from through a series of operations in defense of Palestine.

Iran’s Great Prophet 19 drills included land, air and naval components, with IRGC, Army and Basij paramilitary forces taking part. Designed to enhance combat readiness against terrorist and enemy plots, the drills featured large-scale exercises and troop transfers in the country’s west, south and southeast, including a naval phase in the northern Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.