Ghods Ababil (Swallow)

The Story of Ghods Ababil

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used to be primarily considered the domain of the Israeli and US military. By the 1990s, however, every major military power thought it could fund its own drone development for a variety of battlefield-related servicesfrom reconnaissance to surveillance to attack. Even in the age of digital communications and satellites, drones offer some of the best advantages: They are relatively inexpensive to manufacture, operate, and maintain compared to deploying modern multirole fighter jets, and they do not require pilots to be blindly exposed to adversaries Air and ground defenses, and they provide real-time capability - battlefield assessment capability (satellites must be monitored in orbit above Earth, this option repeats every 24 hours).

In this way, drones are truly a method of warfare for the near foreseeable future and beyond.

Ababil takes a traditional aerodynamic shape that more than anything else embodies the look of a winged rocket. The body is a tubular frame covered with a nose cone. The wing canards are mounted high on the front of the fuselage, while the main wing spans are mounted low to match the rear of the vehicle. The engine is mounted aft, with a two-bladed "propeller" type propeller system (traditional propeller and engine "pull", so traditionally mounted forward of the fuselage or in the wing nacelles). A single vertical stabilizer completes the design element.

Performance specs report a maximum range of up to 150 miles, with a radius of just over 93 miles. Service is capped at 14,000 feet and top speed is 186 mph.

This unmanned aerial system won't win a design award based on appearance alone, but its operational involvement in the region has caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. regional allies.

Ababil is launched from the rear of a specially configured Benz 911 utility truck via a pneumatic launcher. Drones can also be launched at sea using missiles. Although no visible landing gear can be seen, Ababil was recovered via a skid and parachute system from Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries.

In service, the Ababil can be equipped with various surveillance-oriented equipment configurations, depending on the Ababil model and its defined mission role. An integrated communications package enables a direct data link between ground operators and aircraft systems. Shahid Noroozi's guidance system is an indigenous Iranian product, while the IR-based flare system and CCD TV cameras are part of the inner workings.

In the attack role, Ababil can also carry 88-pound warhead ammunition. This particular version delivers the warhead payload to the target, resulting in the complete loss of the drone (unlike the US Predator/Reaper launching Hellfire missiles from the air).

Several other specialized variants are known.

At the time of writing, Ababil has been used by Iran and Hezbollah. Hezbollah received 12 missiles from Iran (according to Israeli sources), 3 of which were shot down by Israeli fighters in the 2006 Lebanon war. On March 16, 2009, a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon shot down an Iranian Ababil over Iraq, near Baradruz, 60 miles northeast of Baghdad.

There has been speculation about the motives of the drones in the region, but it has not eased tensions between Washington and Tehran.

The number of 120 production examples available on our website is an estimate.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes