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Iran unveils new armed drone, defying pressure over shipments to Russia

With a range of over 1,200 miles, Mohajer 10 is the latest from a family of drones that Russia is believed to have imported from Iran to use in its war on Ukraine. 
President Ebrahim Raisi, second right, at a ceremony to unveil the Mohajer-10 drone, Aug. 22, 2023.

Iran's Defense Ministry unveiled a new advanced combat drone on Tuesday, the latest from a generation of such unmanned aircraft it has allegedly been shipping to Russia in the course of the ongoing war on Ukraine. 

Dubbed Mohajer 10, the drone was unveiled by hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi at a ceremony in Tehran as the country marked its National Defense Industry Day. 

The new military aircraft boasts a variety of features, as detailed by the state-funded Tasnim news agency. With a fuel capacity of 450 liters, Mohajer 10 can fly at a maximum speed of 210 kilometers per hour (130 mph) to a range of up to 2,000 kilometers, or about 1,240 miles.  

Mohajer is the name of a family of drones Iran has developed and unveiled one after another in recent years. Western intelligence sources as well as the Ukrainian military maintain that Mohajer 6 is being extensively used by Russia in its bombardments of Ukrainian infrastructure and civilian targets. The accusation has triggered an array of packages of Western sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Tehran, on the other hand, claims that it has shipped only a limited number of such drones to Moscow and it did so prior to the invasion of Ukraine. In the latest, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters on a visit to South Africa that Ukrainian authorities have failed to present evidence on Iranian drone deliveries to Russia and that Moscow has promised not to use Iranian equipment in its war on Ukraine.  

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