Ukraine’s air defense forces will have to face the Arash-2 suicide drone if it is handed over to the Russian military by Iran. The new drone has more firepower and bigger range.
The information that Iran will provide russia with a large number of Arash-2 suicide drones has been published by the international media, causing a lot of interest among people about the capabilities and features of this new Iranian drone, and yes this new weapon has devastating firepower.
The Arash-2 is a medium-sized kamikaze drone, capable of flying to a predetermined target and destroying it with a single hit.
The initial version of this highly-capable UAV is designed to attack stationary targets with known coordinates, while the upgraded version is more likely to be able to destroy moving targets within a certain area.
The Arash-2 suicide drone is built according to the “tailless” design method. The drone has a streamlined fuselage with a large elongation. In the central part of the drone are triangular wings, the total length of the drone is 4.5 metres, and its wingspan is not more than 4 meter.
In the tail section of the aircraft, an “open-air” air-cooled piston engine with a propeller is installed, the drone take-off with a solid-fuel booster platform suspended under the fuselage, which gets removed after the booster fuel run out.
The use of piston-engine limits the maximum speed of drone, but it is economical and allows for increased duration and range of flight, the speed characteristics of the Arash-2 drone are unknown, the drone aerodynamic configuration shows that this drone is capable of reaching subsonic speeds.
During its testing exercises by the Iranian Armed Forces, the drone showed the striking range of 1,400 km, but according to many Defense Analysts this drone can easily reach the maximum striking range of 2,000 kilometers.
The base version of the Arash-2 was only equipped with autopilot, as well as inertial navigation and satellite navigation. With their help, the UAV can approach the specific target with the given coordinates.
But how this large suicide drone enters the optimal flight path, correct the mission after launch, or have the ability to reselect the target is still unknown.
Recently, a modernized version of the Arash-2 suicide drone with a probe was demonstrated, the new target search system shows that this is a seeker equipped with an infrared camera.
It should be noted that such a modification could make the Arash-2 an official patrol ammunition, it can not move towards its target, but also patrol a certain area to search or wait until the object reappears, and then attack.
The UAV is equipped with a High-Explosive Fragmentation Warhead, the estimated mass of the warhead can reach tens of kilograms, allowing the drone to destroy different types of targets.
It is interesting to see that the Arash-2 is launched from a wide variety of launchers, it can be launched from a warship or a truck, etc. In all types of launchers the accelerator stage is responsible for the providing the initial speed to the drone.
The Iranian Arash-2 suicide drone can also be seen as a low-cost cruise missile, but the cost of this weapon is very cheap, thus it can be easily used for salvo-fire method, to overload enemy air defense systems.
Along with all of its above-mentioned features, the Arash-2 has some disadvantages too, one of them is its slow flight, it can be shot down with proper planned and advanced air defense systems.
But the current situation of the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces is not good they lack good quality systems to cover their entire large territory, so the Ukrainian Armed Forces will definitely struggle to counter the threat posed by this new Iranian-supplied, Russian-used large loitering munition.