'Arash-e-Kamangir': Weapon Iran Claims To Have Used To Shoot Down US Drone

Iran has claimed that it has deployed a new air defence system to take down a United States MQ-9 Reaper drone near the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. Iran's state-sponsored media said the American drone-- that costs between $16 million and $30 million per unit-- was brought down near Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz using a locally developed system called Arash-e-Kamangir.

If the claim is correct, the interception marked the first combat use of the defence system named after the legendary Iranian character Arash-the-Archer. It would mean Tehran has retained its military capacity to repel US and Israeli attacks despite months of war in the Middle East. 

Iranian media claimed the drone was brought down over regional waters during an operation to protect the country's airspace and maritime borders. "This operation, which was carried out using a system with hidden capabilities, is a clear and decisive message from Iran," Iran's Fars news agency quoted unnamed officials as saying.

However, so far, no independent source has corroborated the Iranian claim of a new interception system.

How True Can The Iranian Claim Be

Experts believe that the Iranian claim should be treated carefully. They noted that, even though Iranian officials have a long history of publicising military advances that are difficult to independently verify, the broad idea behind the claim is plausible, as Tehran is investing heavily in cheaper, mobile and domestically produced defence systems designed to threaten drones and aircraft without relying on large fixed radar sites that are easier to detect.

Mark Hilborne, a senior lecturer in the school of security studies at King's College London, told Al Jazeera that Iran has become quite self-sufficient in various forms of missile design and, like Ukraine, has been clever at changing the economics of warfare. 

"Cheap, simple systems can hold much more complex systems at risk," he said.

An example of this is Tehran's continuous use of comparatively cheap-to-produce Shahed drones, which potentially give Iran a longer-term economic advantage in any prolonged conflict.

What Arash-e Kamangir Might Be?

The new interceptor system is named after a Persian mythology hero who is described in folklore as having fired an arrow to draw the border between Iran and Central Asia. 

Speaking to Al Jazeera, analysts said the Arash-e Kamangir interception may not be a new revolutionary weapon, but another step in Iran's wider adaptation of mobile, lower-cost air defence. This matters because, unlike traditional air defence networks, which depend on radars and launch batteries and are a lot easier to identify, the cheap and smaller alternatives can be moved, hidden, launched quickly and replaced more easily.

Alex Almeida, a security analyst at New York-based strategic intelligence platform Horizon Engage, told the publication that the system might be related to Iran's other short-range or loitering surface-to-air weapons.

"I suspect it's a further development of one of those systems. It doesn't rely on fixed guidance from a traditional air defence radar site. It's probably using some kind of electro-optical or heat-seeking guidance – essentially a pop-up SAM [surface-to-air missile] system that is easy to set up and launch," he said. 

According to the report, some of Iran's smaller defence systems are designed in a way that the interceptor can wait in the air, circling in the sky until a target drone or aircraft appears. There are also short-range anti-drone or anti-aircraft weapons, which are cheaper and less sophisticated than major air defence batteries but are also easier to manufacture and replace.

Drones like the MQ-9 Reaper, which are designed to be slow-moving because their primary purpose is surveillance, are an easy target for the Iranian defence system. 

However, Nicole Grajewski, an assistant professor at Sciences Po University in Paris, told Al Jazeera that Tehran may still need stronger medium -- and long-range air defences. But she insisted that the mobile systems have a clear benefit.

"The value is that you can move these quickly... They are mobile launch systems, in some cases man-portable. We don't know how high the Reaper was flying. Based on the released video, it may have been relatively easy for them to shoot down, but it still indicates they retain some remaining air defence capability," she said.