File image.
Iranian air defenses shot down on June 18 an Israeli Hermes 900 combat drone over the central province of Isfahan, marking the first confirmed aerial loss of the Israeli Air Force since the start of the attack on the Islamic Republic five days earlier.
The Hermes 900 is a medium-size drone with an endurance of over 30 hours and a maximum altitude of 30,000 feet. It was designed by Israel’s Elbit to carry out reconnaissance, surveillance, communications relay and attack missions. A single drone of this model could cost more than $6 millions.
In recent days, several Israeli Hermes 900 drones were spotted operating over western and central Iran. Multiple strikes on Iranian ballistic missile launchers and air defenses were contributed to these drones.
Iranian media released footage of the wreckage, confirming that the drone was armed with several Mikholit light guided missiles.
While the Israeli Defense Forces acknowledged that its drones were armed a few years ago, it keeps the Mikholit under tight warps to this day.
The Mikholit was spotted in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Even Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in the past. The specifications of the missiles are unknown but most open sources suggest that it is linked to the Israeli Nimrod missile, which is guided via semi-active laser.
The footage from Iran provided a closer look at the concealed firing pods of the Mikholit. Each pod can house four missiles, which are apparently fired backwards. This suggests that the Mikholit has a lock-after-launch feature, which means that the missile is likely equipped with some inertial navigation system (INS).
Each Hermes 900 can be equipped with at least two such firing pods, for a total of eight missiles. This makes the drone one of the most armed in the world.
The Israeli opening strikes on June 13 dealt a blow to air defenses in the western and central Iran. Still, the Islamic Republic announced the interception of dozens of drones in recent days. Some were later revealed to be just loitering munitions.
It is unclear how Iran managed to shoot down the Hermes 900, but it is very possible that a hybrid drone-missile interceptor identified by the United States military and intelligence as the “358” anti-aircraft weapon was used.
The 358 interceptor, which is powered by a gas turbine, is said to have a range of 100-150 kilometers with a ceiling of over eight kilometers and a top speed of up to 700 kilometers pre hour. The missile features an unique guidance system, built around a satellite-aided INS with terminal imaging infrared homing.
Over the last few years, the Iranian interceptor was credited with downing dozens of combat drones over Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.
While the IAF has been successfully hunting down Iran’s traditional air defenses, it will be very difficult to neutralize the threat posed by the 358 interceptor, which weighs just under 60 kg and can be deployed from a simple launcher by a few operators.
Click to see full-size image.
While the supersonic interceptor does not pose a real threat to supersonic fighter jets, it could be lethal for bombers flying at lower altitudes.
The U.S., which is reportedly reading its bombers for joining the Israeli attack on Iran, should take note of the 358 interceptor and its larger version, referred to as the 359, which reportedly have a longer range, a higher ceiling and a heavier warhead.
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seeing a us defense secretary with tattoos all over his body might make you feel like you’re watching idiocracy. but this isn’t fiction – this is today’s us administration. so the intellectual level of stupid fatass country trolls shouldn’t surprise you.
if you think hegseth is bad, wait till you meet lindsey graham. the man with a female name and his girlfriend blumenthal by his side. these ladies think they are tough
there are no good people in the world, we are just an animal species, and in a russian laboratory, the khazars cloned shah and soraya.
rt writes that russia will wait until the shah is set up and then pretend to be honest people not godamn gang.
ht tps ://ww w .rt.c om/news/619553-ira n-is ra el-vit ally-ryu m shin/
the only human nature you’re intimate with is yours …
the khazarian mafia cloned shah, soraya, and shapour bakhtiar in a lab in moldova using donated eggs.
demented loon
mutt’s gotta spew bs.
iran needs to invest heavily in anti air defense. top priority. learn from russia with air to air drones. drones that hunt drones and missiles.
iranian analysts discuss on why russia betrayed iran: it’s because 15 % of russians are zionist jews, among them many in the leadership. there are also claims that putin gets funded by jewish russian billionaires in its war in ukraine.
russia has a zionist problem that is why they refused to sell s400 and delay advanced tech deliveries or never at all. without soleimani, russia would not have involved in syria. they have a history of cooperation with the west from tsarist times. iranian monarchy also has history of cooperation with the west. that is why the west wants monarchy in iran again. but they forget iranian resistance and memory
russia have a christian problem. first they weaponized the khazars by convert them to judaism, after that, they accept punch after punch from a enemy according to their masochistic “religion”. they should understand why friedrich nietzsche hated christianity, and why the nazis blamed him for their actions, but they have not acknowledge newton valid in north america yet.
75% of all these murderous bolshevik comissioners in russia were khazars and now 75% of top neocons in usa are again khazars. is it coincidence or cohenincidence?
if iran is taken over by the jewsa, it will be a dagger aimed at the soft underbelly of southern russia. putin needs to wise up. he has been fighting for 3 years plus to prevent the western destruction of his country via ukraine, now potentially he could face exactly the same thing through a jewsa controlled iran.
the jewsa/ jewu gave the jooz nuclear weapons, 300+ f15s/16s/35s, its entire air defence system, every bomb dropped on gaza, the entire cost of its tank programme, 6 dolphin nuclear missile submarines at a billion euros a pop, and much more, all completely free. what did russia/ china give iran by comparison? f… all. iran was promised sukhois and s 300/ 400s but these were never delivered.
putin refused to deliver s300s iran had paid for as a favour to netanyahu. now israel is carrying out terror attacks inside russia. putin always does stupid, sordid deals with russia’s enemies, selling out russia’s friends. imagine if iran now had sukhois or j10s and ad missiles it was willing to pay for.
at army parade may 9, 2018 mileikowsky was in moscow with vvp, in livestream all world saw how vvp sold to mileikowsky the syria on the street – unbelievable, on the sidewalk, one minute later zionists start bombing syria – the russian “ally”. i was shocked. who need such “partner”and “ally”?
some more bullshit from stupid fatass trolls … those that engage with them should be prepared to be manipulated along their prejudices lines. divide and conquer is the name of the game, while nato and eu are fragmenting.
the shah will return and this time soraya will be a woman, not a eunuch. they will reproduce through genetic engineering developed in georgia and moldova by the best khazar scientists.
khazars think they are god’s favorite. they are in for a major disappointment
khazaria empire is today southern russia and southern ukraine, so khazars are at home in russia. newly used name for khazars in russia is evrey and jews in uk and usa. so russia is heavily infested with khazars.
not much you can do when small drones take off from a nearby location and take out your batteries
israel katz means israeli cat? should cat explain why the operation is not called the return of the shah?
natayahu destroy plistine ,syria,yemen,lebanon,gaza why is he not lock up at hague together with zelenski.its time for hisbollah,yemen,iraq and syria to attack israel and finished it off liberation.
the west is going all in to prevent the rise of the brics, and it is burning its “rules based order” (which the icc is part of) in the same movement. it just shows you the level of desperation.
we are headed for ww3 in the very near future. as soon as ukraine/ middle east is concluded one way or another, they will move on to iran.
we have been in a world war since 1999.
remember when southfront idiots thought iran would “level” israel with its 100,000’s of missiles?
you guys are very stupid!
never saw that on southfront.
surely an invention to desperately distract from the fact that israel attacked iran and it backfired.
but everybody has seen trump in action. it is obvious the guy doesn’t read. at all. and that is the best option the us citizens had at the last election.
so, yeah… about ‘stupid’… i wouldn’t be throwing rocks in a glass shop.
while everyone is distracted w/iran…israel is making even better progress in gaza…
just in two years time … against a militia armed with aks, rpgs and ieds. winning for sure. /s
lindsay graham and nancy pelosi and the gang in washington and hollywood are very annoyed about all the children the israelis are murdering. all that pizza going to waste…
larry johnson made an interesting observation that perhaps iran was “playing possum”. america has a habit of waiting until the winner is obvious and then coming in on that side and taking the credit; they did this in ww2 when prescott bush funded the nazis along with ford, gm, itt and ibm. but when it became obvious that russia was winning the government joined the allies. if drumpf attacks iran because he thinks israel is winning he will be in for a big shock – 2 aircraft carriers-worth…
lazy shitcock drags out another straw man.
not secret anymore…
shlomo bit off more than it can swallow and its idiot golem cannot save the beast despite donny dump’s bluster.