Iran’s ‘Gaza’ drone makes military exercise debut

If the drone is as capable as advertised, analyst Ryan Bohl said he could see it having a "greater tactical impact on Iran's near abroad in places like Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan."

By   Agnes Helou

BEIRUT — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) over the weekend offered a fresh look at what appeared to be an operational long-range drone dubbed “Gaza” as it took part in a military exercise there.

Iranian news reports said the unmanned aerial vehicle, whose bodyframe resembles the American-made Predator or Reaper drone, weighs over three tons and has a wingspan of 22 meters (72 feet).

(For comparison the American MQ-9 Reaper UAV has a 66-foot wingspan.) The Gaza is claimed to have a range of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) and can carry a payload up to 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) — which could purportedly include 13 missiles.

Samuel Bendett, an AI and unmanned systems expert at US-based CNA research organization, said those stats should be viewed with skepticism, at least for now.

“Any capability that is advertised has to ultimately be proven — so it remains to be seen if this particular drone can actually deliver on this capability,” Bendett told Breaking Defense.

The Gaza, which was in development long before the most recent conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, was on display at Qatar’s DIMDEX show in March 2024.

At the time, representatives at Iran’s stand told Breaking Defense that the Gaza is a medium-altitude, low-endurance (MALE) UAV, equipped with satellite communication capabilities and has a maximum flight altitude of 35,000 feet. An airborne synthetic aperture radar meant to detect surface and underwater targets can also be equipped on the platform, they said.

If the drone is as capable as adverstized, analyst Ryan Bohl said he could see it having a “greater tactical impact on Iran’s near abroad in places like Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan” as opposed to presenting a real threat to Iran’s regional enemy, Israel, “which has a sophisticated air defense network and the ability to shoot down slower moving drones like this which have to travel a great distance.”

That said, Bohl, senior Middle East and North Africa analyst at the RANE network, told Breaking Defense that if the drones were utilized “against the Israelis or against the United States and Gulf Arab partners in the case of an all-out regional war, they would be a notable angle to conduct near abroad strikes on US forces in Iraq, Syria or the gulf.”

Bohl said the drones could also see some success in the export market, whether to smaller aligned groups like the Houthis in Yemen, or to the Russian military, which the US says has used other, smaller Iranian drones throughout the conflict in Ukraine.