Israeli Hermes drone shot down by Iran

As pressure mounts on Iran's leadership, the country's air defenses have claimed their first successful kill of an Israeli drone.

The Israeli military says it has air control over western Iran and Tehran, and is working to expand that control to other parts of the country to prevent Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Israel. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), more than 70 Iranian air defense systems have been destroyed in airstrikes so far. Photo: @ The Washington Post.

Although Iran's air defense system has been severely weakened, it is still capable of shooting down Israeli drones, as evidenced by the recent loss of an Elbit Systems Hermes 900 drone by the Israeli Air Force in the central Iranian province of Isfahan. Photo: @ Defense Blog.

Iranian state television has aired footage of what it said was an Iranian air defense system shooting down an Israeli Hermes 900 drone. It is the first time Iran has aired footage of a drone being shot down. The UAV crashed in Isfahan province. Photo: @IRIB News TV.

Here is a transcript of the report aired on IRIB News TV: “This is one of the areas east of Isfahan. As you can see in the picture, at around 5:00 this morning, the proud air defense forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army destroyed and shot down a highly advanced Hermes drone. This drone was equipped with weapons for targeting, but now it does not even have a chance to fire these weapons at our targets. This shows that our air defense forces are ready and they shot down this drone.” Photo: @IRIB News TV.

The Israel Defense Forces also recently confirmed that one of its drones was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while operating in Iranian airspace. However, after this incident, the Israel Defense Forces said they were not afraid of information being leaked. Photo: @IRIB News TV Station.

Footage from the crash site confirmed that the drone was a Hermes 900, known to the Israeli Air Force as the Kochav. Clearly visible amid the wreckage of the Hermes 900 was a miniature glide bomb, which looked like a Mikholit. The Mikholit was developed by Israel and is specifically designed for use with drones and is typically used to attack small ground targets, such as personnel or vehicles, waiting aircraft, and even air defense systems. Photo: @IRIB News TV.

The Hermes 900 is an Israeli-made medium-altitude, long-endurance UAV developed for tactical operations. Building on the legacy of the widely used Hermes 450 series, the drone is capable of flying for over 30 hours and reaching altitudes of up to 9,144 meters. Photo: @ Wikipedia.

With a wingspan of 15 meters and a maximum takeoff weight of 970 kg, the platform supports a payload of up to 300 kg. The Hermes 900 can be equipped with a variety of payloads, including EO/IR sensors, synthetic aperture radar with ground moving target indicator, electronic warfare systems, COMINT/ELINT packages, and hyperspectral sensors… Photo: @ C4ISRNet.

Source: https://khoahocdoisong.vn/may-bay-khong-nguoi-lai-hermes-cua-israel-bi-iran-ban-ha-post1548994.html