I
N THE EARLY hours of February 10,
an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps Air and Space Force
(IRGCASF) Saeghe unmanned
aerial vehicle (UAV) — a reverse-
engineered version of the
US-made RQ-170 Sentinel — was
intercepted and shot down by the
Israeli Air Force (IAF) deep inside Israeli
airspace over the Golan Heights.
According to unnamed sources within
the IRGCASF, this was the first combat
mission for the UAV in question. The
IRGC had apparently planned to show
video footage recorded during the sortie
on Iranian state media hours before
propaganda rallies marking the 40th
anniversary of the Islamic Revolution on
February 11.
The decision to launch this inaugural
surveillance mission by a Saeghe UAV
reportedly came from high-ranking IRGC
commanders. The drone was one of 12examples delivered to the IRGCASF since
October 2016. However, the Saeghe UAV
has limited reconnaissance capabilities
in comparison with more conventional
IRGCASF UAVs such as the Ababil-3,
Mohajer-4, Sadegh and Shahed-129,
some of which are also armed. Indeed,For the first time since 2006, the Israeli Air Force has lost a
manned aircraft in combat. The F-16I fell victim to a Syrian
surface-to-air missile in a complex game of cat and mouse over
northern Syria and the Golan Heights.REPORT Babak Taghvaee
Above left
to right: The
Mohajer-6 UCAV
hand-over
ceremony on
February 5 this
year. Ali Naderi
The Saeghe
UAV unveiling
ceremony at
the Shahed
Aerospace
Industries facility
in October 2016.
Keyvan Tavakkoli
Parts of an S-125
missile that came
down in the Irbid
region of northern
Jordan.
via Twitter
Left: The burning
wreckage of
a missile from
an SA-6 mobile
SAM that was
launched against
the IAF F-16I.
via TwitterSYRIA, THE SUFA
AND THE SAEGHE
there are even doubts as to whether
the Saeghe actually carries any form of
surveillance camera.
Minutes after infiltration of the Saeghe
UAV into Israel’s airspace, it was detected
by IAF early warning radars. Because
of its limited radar cross-section and
low infra-red signature, as well as its
small size, the decision was taken to
scramble an AH-64D Saraf from 113
‘Hornet’ Squadron. The attack helicopter
apparently shot the drone down using
an AGM-114K Hellfire missile. But
this was just the beginning of a more
complex chain of events.Syrian participation
The Saeghe UAV’s debut combat mission
over the Golan was conducted in
conjunction with the Syrian Air Defense
Force (SyADF). It had planned to shoot
down one or more IAF jets that might
attempt to attack the IRGC’s drone
command and control (C2) centers at
Mezzeh military airport near Damascus,
as well as at T4 air base from where the
Saeghe was launched.
It seems the Israel Defense Forces
reacted in the way that the SyADF and
IRGC expected and launched air strikes
against 12 targets including three
SyADF batteries and four IRGC bases,
among them a drone C2 center. The
SyADF quickly launched between 15
and 23 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs),
which included at least three antiquated
S-125s (SA-3 ‘Goa’), six long-range S-200s
(SA-5 ‘Gammon’) and six 57E6s from
modern Pantsir-S1 (SA-22 ‘Greyhound’)
systems. Evidence of missile wreckage
that came down in Mount Hermon,COMBAT REPORT // F-16I SHOOTDOWN
28 April 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
28-29 Israel Shootdown C.indd 28 15/02/2018 12:48