The Shahed 171 Simorgh (sometimes S-171 and called IRN-170 by the US government) is an Iranian jet-powered

flying wing A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage, with its crew, payload, fuel, and equipment housed inside the main wing structure. A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blis ...

unmanned combat aerial vehicle An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), also known as a combat drone, colloquially shortened as drone or battlefield UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance ...

(UCAV) produced by

Shahed Aviation Industries Shahed Aviation Industries Research Center (مرکز تحقیقات صنایع هوایی شاهد) is an Iranian aerospace company known for designing military helicopters and UAVs. They are associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps A ...

. Its design is based on a

reverse engineered Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...

American

RQ-170 The Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Lockheed Martin and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). While the USAF has released few details ...

UAV captured by Iran in 2011 and modified to carry guided missiles. It is one of two Iranian flying wing UAVs based on the RQ-170, along with the

Saegheh The Saegheh ("Lightning" or "Thunder" in Persian) (also spelled Saegre, Saeghe, Saeqeh, etc.) is any of at least eight completely separate Iranian weapons systems: a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) warhead, an anti-tank guided missile family, a s ...

, a smaller version, with which it is often confused.

Etymology

''Simorgh'' is a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

word deriving from

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...

𐭮𐭩𐭭𐭬𐭥𐭫𐭥 '' sēnmurw'',Schmidt, Hanns-Peter (2002)
Simorgh
' in

Encyclopedia Iranica An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

. which was a benevolent mythical bird in Persian mythology.

Design

The Simorgh is a

RQ-170. There are multiple unknown variants, one of which is modified to play the role of a

UCAV An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), also known as a combat drone, colloquially shortened as drone or battlefield UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance ...

armed with 4 missiles. An author stated it was a crude mock-up mostly made out of fiberglass. It was used with munitions during the 2020 Joint Exercise Zolfaghar 99.

Status

According to the United States Government, a company associated with

Imam Hossein University The Imam Hossein Comprehensive University (also referred to as IHU or Imam Hossein University, fa, دانشگاه امام حسین, ''Dāneshgāh-e Emām Hosein'') is a public university located in Tehran, Iran. The university was opened in 19 ...

, Paravar Pars Company, was involved in the reverse engineering and research, development, and production of the Shahed 171. Two were under construction as of 2014. In 2014 Iran said that they would have four in service by March 2015. The UAV was first seen in May 2015 and was shown flying on Iranian TV in October 2016. Jane's analysis placed the UAV at Kashan Air Base. Some sources report that a Shahed 171 may have been shot down in the

February 2018 Israel–Syria incident On 10 February 2018, an Israeli F-16I was shot down by the Syrian air defenses after conducting an air raid on Iran-backed positions inside Syrian territory. The aircraft was part of a larger Israeli aerial dispatch which Israel said was se ...

, but the UAV was probably the very similar Saegheh.

Operators

; * Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - Aerospace Force

References

{{Weapons of Iran

171 Year 171 (Roman numerals, CLXXI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Herennianus (or, less frequently, year 92 ...

Unmanned military aircraft of Iran Iranian military aircraft Aircraft manufactured in Iran Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force Post–Cold War military equipment of Iran Unmanned aerial vehicles of Iran

Etymology

Design

Status

Operators

See also

Related development

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

References