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Arash Kamangir claim
Iran said it used a new air defence system to shoot down a United States MQ-9 Reaper drone near the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week, with Iranian media saying the drone was brought down near Qeshm Island.
“Iran has said it used a new air defence system to shoot down a United States MQ-9 Reaper drone near the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week, an incident analysts say shows that Tehran has retained its capacity to repel US and Israeli attacks despite months of strikes on its military sites”
Iranian media said the interception marked the first combat use of a locally developed system called Arash-e Kamangir, while there was “no independent corroboration of Iran’s claim of a new interception system.”
Fars News Agency described the operation as a “clear and decisive message from Iran,” and said the system was used to intercept a “hostile” reconnaissance drone over the Strait of Hormuz.
Analysts quoted by Al Jazeera said the attack would “fit a wider pattern,” and Mark Hilborne said there was “very little independently verified information” about Arash-e Kamangir while arguing the broad idea behind the claim is plausible.
Mobile defense and drones
Al Jazeera reported that the Arash-e Kamangir system was described as having stealth-detection capabilities, but gave few technical details beyond Fars’s claim that it was used to intercept a “hostile” reconnaissance drone.
Alex Almeida told Al Jazeera that “I suspect it’s a further development of one of those systems,” adding that it “doesn’t rely on fixed guidance from a traditional air defence radar site.”
Al Jazeera also said the reported shooting down of the Reaper could force the United States to rely more on expensive missiles rather than drones when attacking Iran, while Tehran could continue using comparatively cheap-to-produce Shahed drones.
In parallel, the Al-Jazeera Net report said analysts believe the Iranian narrative is plausible because Tehran has invested in “mobile, locally made, low-cost air defense systems” designed to threaten hostile drones without relying on fixed, large radar sites.
Regional implications and scrutiny
Beyond the Strait of Hormuz, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that Armenia staged a Republic Day military parade in YEREVAN that appeared to include an Iranian air defense system, with the first reported sighting of the AD-08 Majid coming during rehearsals.
RFE/RL said an official announcer was cautious about the system’s origin, and a spokesman for the Defense Ministry in Yerevan declined to confirm or deny if the Scorpion was actually of Iranian origin.
Sirous Amerian, a New Zealand-based military affairs analyst, told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that “in my opinion there is about a 99.5 percent overlap,” arguing the system is most likely the same as Iran’s Majid.
Separately, Defense Express described photos of an unknown surface-to-air missile system in Iran after “the Internet was unblocked in Iran,” suggesting it could be a new Iranian-made SAM system built on the chassis of a Czech Tatra 815-7 8x8 truck, while noting that Iran had “big problems with air defense” during a recent operation over Tehran and other cities.
