Mystery UAV emerges from the sea near Iran

reply to post by intrptr


Yeah, it doesn't quite fit anything. The nose and engine look like the Pahpad, but the aft section doesn't. The aft looks like the 129. It doesn't fit perfectly with anything that I've found so far.

reply to post by Zaphod58

What if that rear fin was bent "up" on impact but both were originally /\ down before it crashed? One got knocked off and the the other was left like we see it? Also its a prop. Look at the aft "hub" with broken off propellers at the end (cowling missing).

Good luck. I know its got you buggered...

reply to post by Zaphod58

Uh ohhh... ?



Edit: sorry, forgot link...

theaviationist.com...

reply to post by intrptr


The tail placement is wrong. Everything has tail booms, and no tail near the engine like that. Putting the tail near the engine, with that placement is odd.

Yes, yes it does and it will continue to bug me until we're back on the road Friday, or I figure out what the hell it is.

reply to post by intrptr


That's it, but it's going to continue to bug me, because now I have to find out the name.

reply to post by Zaphod58

I edited to add a link for the page in my above post.

Happy hunting.

reply to post by Zaphod58

I noticed something else... its on skids. Look in the bed of the pickup in your pic...



Like this from the above Aviation link...

reply to post by intrptr


Yup, that's the right one. The problem is that no one appears to know anything about it. It was first unveiled during the Great Prophet 7 exercises in July of last year. Other than that, and the pictures of it, there's not a lot out there.

reply to post by Zaphod58

You were right, it is Iranian. The link I found said it might be a clone of an Israeli model. Thats a good place to start. If they reverse engineered it, that would account for its abilities. What do the Israelis have that resembles it?

reply to post by intrptr


It's not a perfect copy, but the Hermes 90 is the closest that I've found so far. I've just started looking so I'll probably find something that fits better later on. I have until Friday morning sitting here, so I have plenty of time to go.

none of the pics i have seen seem to really match this fished up thing. it does remind me of something tho, not a drone of any type i can think of but some sort of missile or flying bomb of some type. i believe it might be rocket powered.

reply to post by generik




That's what it is. There are two versions of this, one has wheels, one has skids like a helicopter. They were unveiled during Great Prophet 7 of last year.

reply to post by Zaphod58

Maybe it's just a hobby craft. Is everything a drone? Maybe that's just a propaganda shot. It would be easy enough to fake.

Something does not look right about the sea growth on the UAV

Firstly the rudder is basically clean, meaning it was out of the water for the most part.

The growth on the fuselage is quite heavy, perhaps been in the water 2-6 months.

It also looks stringy, and no encrustation growth, just green sea growth.

I am skeptical because of those observations.