Saegheh

The Shahed Saegheh or Shahed 191 is an Iranian unmanned combat aerial vehicle produced by Shahed Aviation Industries. Iran revealed the type in 2016 after claiming to have reverse engineered technology from a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel captured in 2011. The Saegheh is smaller and different from the original RQ-170, but it belongs to the same Iranian flying-wing UAV development line as the larger Shahed 171 Simorgh.

Technically, Saegheh is a compact flying-wing UCAV rather than a manned fighter. Public sources describe turbofan and piston-powered variants, vehicle-based launch methods, and carriage of small precision-guided weapons. Its planform reflects Iranian interest in low-observable UAV shapes, although open sources do not prove that it has the stealth performance of the RQ-170.

Operationally, Saegheh gives Iran an armed UAV option for surveillance and strike missions where a small unmanned aircraft is preferable to a manned platform. Reports of Israeli air defences downing an Iranian UAV in 2018 increased attention on the type. Its significance lies in Iran's ability to turn captured technology and domestic industry into a family of operational combat drones.