The Real Threat Of Iran's Suicide Drone

Iran has announced the first deployment of an unmanned aerial vehicle built to crash into targets, which the media promptly called the "suicide drone."

Okay, so it's got a cool name. Is it really a threat? The answer to that depends on how it's used—and where it's aimed.

Mobile Bomb?

First, the specs. The new UAV, called the Raad in some Iranian press, is basically a clone of the Boeing-built ScanEagle surveillance drone—an unarmed UAV that earns its way onto the battlefield with its eyes, not its talons. The Iranian version provides overhead surveillance for 10 hours, officials there say, but they're also calling the Raad a "mobile bomb" that can strike land and sea targets.

This is not the first armed drone, and not the most dangerous. It's not even as capable as Iran's most powerful unmanned aircraft: The Iranian-made Shahed-129 has a 1000-mile range and can fire up to eight missiles. (That's the claim, anyway. All the Shahed-129s seen in action over Syria have been unarmed.)

Raad's lethality pales in comparison to Iran's conventional weapons. On land, the country has cruise missiles and heavy artillery. In the air, they are just this week testing a new defense system. At sea, they have anti-ship missiles, cruise missiles, and a brand-new indigenous torpedo than can be launched by a helicopter. In addition, mines, gunboats and Kilo-class submarines prowl the waterways.

All-Seeing Eyes

So what does this Raad drone have to offer? First, the ability to cheaply and quietly monitor a large amount of terrain, and to see the enemy coming—something at which drones excel. If the Raad launches like a 50-pound Scan Eagle does—sprung skyward from a mobile launcher—then it needs no runway. Operators could deploy one from remote locations or even small boats.

Raad-sized UAVs can be the eyes in the sky that provide real-time targeting information for larger weapons. In this way, small drones could cause much more damage than they could on their own, executing kamikaze attacks. It is this targeting talent that makes a modern base or warship fear small drones.

Besides, it's not clear that Raad even could reach a base or ship on a kamikaze attack. Radar and self defense systems should be able to spot and neutralize these drones if they approach too closely. And anti-ship missile can close at Mach speeds, whereas a prop-driven UAV goes about 50m knots. Even more to the point, the Navy is interested in new weapons to down drones, and even tested a laser system in the Persian Gulf this fall.

Economic Destruction

However, what if the targets of a kamikaze drone are not military? One popular scenario that Pentagon has simulated in wargames is Iran's ability, if threatened, to close the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. Roughly 20 percent of the world's petroleum passes through the narrow waterway, and other nations fear that Iran can launch coastal attacks on ships, crippling them and closing the Strait. This threat alone is insurance against pressures from foes like the United States and Saudi Arabia.

A Kamikaze drone (or a pair of them—one with a warhead and one with sensors) could be useful in such attacks. Launched silently from the shoreline, Raad drones could scan the Strait for a suitable commercial tanker and make a precision strike on the tanker's bridge, propulsion, or waterline. Without air defense weapons or hardened structures, civilian maritime targets would be the perfect prey to this kind of UAV attack.

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