If Iran's New Suicide Drones Join the Russian Armed Forces, Europe's Air Defense System May Become Useless
In the SCO Military Exercise, Iran's New Military Equipment Showcases Practical Performance
Image caption: The "Hadid-110" suicide drone is launched.
Iran has suddenly become a "trendsetter" in the field of tactical drones, which is a shocking development for Western countries. In particular, Iran's independently developed "Shahed-136" drone, after being technologically improved by Russia and upgraded into the "Geran" series, has completely reshaped the air combat landscape. Therefore, any new drone model introduced by Iran not only attracts the attention of its friendly countries but also makes its adversaries extremely anxious.
At the beginning of December, Iran conducted the "Sahand-2025" counter-terrorism military exercise with nine member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), including Russia, relevant countries, India, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. During the exercise, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ground forces of Iran publicly showcased a notable new drone equipment for the first time.
This equipment is the **"Hadid-110" suicide drone**. It features a unique aerodynamic layout design, which minimizes its radar cross-section to the greatest extent, specifically designed for one-time strike missions.
So, what are the unique features of this equipment that appeared in the SCO military exercise? According to the English newspaper "Tehran Times," the drone is equipped with Iran's domestically developed "Dalaho" rocket engine and a solid-fuel takeoff booster. Additionally, the drone's radar cross-section is very small, largely due to its stealth configuration and carefully designed wing geometry.
In short, the core objective of the designers and developers was not only to pursue high-speed performance of the drone but also to maximize its radar stealth effect.
According to the technical requirements from the customer, the core mission of the "Hadid-110" is to break through multi-layered enemy air defense systems and precisely strike various high-value targets, including command centers, air defense missile systems, radar stations, and strategic nodes within military infrastructure.
Although the "Hadid-110" is small in size, its flight performance indicators are impressive enough to allow it to successfully evade interception by short-range air defense fire:
- Maximum range: 350 kilometers
- Practical ceiling: 9,000 meters
- Maximum speed: 510 kilometers per hour
- Endurance: 60 minutes
- Warhead weight: 30 kilograms
Evidently, compared to the "Geran-2" and "Geran-3" drones, which are based on the "Shahed-136" and have become almost legendary, the parameters of this new cruise missile are not particularly outstanding. However, it has a core advantage — an extremely small radar reflection signal feature.
Combined with the stealth coating and radar-absorbing materials used on the aircraft body, the radar cross-section of the drone is controlled within the range of 0.01–0.02 square meters.
What does this data mean in actual combat? The answer is that the airborne early warning and command aircraft (AWACS) of NATO member states, as well as the "IRIS-T SLM" and "NASAMS" air defense missile systems (which many of these countries are not friendly with Iran), will not be able to detect the "Hadid-110" suicide drone at a distance exceeding 30 to 50 kilometers.
As a comparison, this detection range is only half to two-thirds of the detection range of the "Geran-2" drone, and it hasn't even considered the direct impact of flight altitude on the detection range — while the flight altitude of this new product is also quite impressive.
It can be seen that, thanks to its excellent radar stealth design, as well as its impressive flight speed and ceiling, Western air defense systems, including Israel's "Spyder" and "Iron Dome" air defense systems, are likely unable to effectively respond to the swarm attacks of Iran's new cruise missile.
However, the equipment displayed by Iran in this exercise goes beyond this. During the "Sahand-2025" exercise, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy of Iran conducted large-scale "Eghtedar" exercises in the Gulf of Oman, involving shore-based missile systems and ship-launched missiles. The missile models involved include the "Ghadir-380," "Ghadir-110" cruise missiles, and the "303" ballistic missile.
At the same time, a type of anti-drone mine called "Jaljaleh" was also demonstrated and tested during the exercise. This equipment is specifically designed to destroy small drone targets, especially FPV (First Person View) drones.
According to analysts from Mehr News Agency, the core focus of the naval exercise was the implementation of reconnaissance operations and achieving full situational awareness over the controlled sea area.
The official statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps emphasized that this exercise is defensive in nature, aiming to maintain Iran's existing operational capabilities in the Persian Gulf region.
Let us return to the topic of the "Jaljaleh" anti-drone mine. Publicly available information indicates that this device can attack drones flying below 350 meters. Its projectile speed reaches as high as 7,200 kilometers per hour (i.e., 2,000 meters per second).
The anti-drone mine uses a dedicated launch module for deployment. The specific construction of the module remains confidential. However, it is known that the module contains an acoustic sensor that triggers the device by capturing the sound of the drone's engine, firing a cluster warhead vertically. Its killing range is approximately 5 meters, and the shrapnel diffusion radius can reach about 15 meters.
The Iranian Ministry of Defense stated that the "Jaljaleh" anti-drone mine has significant killing effects against heavy quadcopter drones, hexacopter drones, FPV drones, and low-flying helicopters.
The Iranian Army Engineering Corps plans to deploy this mine mainly in coastal areas — after all, this is where the most likely threats would come from.
This deployment strategy is obviously reasonable because the U.S. Department of Defense has announced a $1 billion plan to equip the U.S. Marine Corps with hundreds of thousands of FPV drones — this is the real threat Iran is facing.
Finally, let's add some details about the "Eghtedar" exercise. In addition to the above equipment, the exercise also used the "Nawab" shipborne air defense missile system deployed on fast boats, with a range of up to 20 kilometers; at the same time, the land-based mobile version of the system, "Majid," was also unveiled, capable of attacking aerodynamic targets within an 8-kilometer range.
Evidently, this exercise by Iran integrated shore-based missile systems, anti-ship warfare systems, and various types of drone equipment (including FPV drones), with the core purpose of training the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to deal with enemy amphibious landing operations — the enemy here is self-evident, which is the United States.
Deploying the "Jaljaleh" anti-drone mines along the coast is an important part of this operational concept.
Moreover, the newly commissioned "Kordestan" floating military base of the Iranian Navy also aligns with this strategic thinking — this base is equipped with anti-ship warfare systems and the latest cruise missile weapons.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/7583546456464704063/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author.