Iran claims new drone can fly for 1,250 miles, 24 hours

A senior Iranian commander claims it has deployed a domestic reconnaissance drone that can stay in the air for up to 24 hours.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said on state TV Tuesday that Iran has a new drone with a range of 2,000 kilometers, or 1,250 miles, according to the Associated Press.

That distance nearly doubles the range of Iran’s previous drones, according to the AP.

Hajizadeh, who talked about the new drone as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was attending the United Nations General Assembly, said the new Iranian drone was designed and developed by Iranian scientists.

Hajizadeh did not talk about the U.S.-made drone that Iran captured last December, which the Obama administration requested Tehran return. Iran trotted out the drone on its state TV channels at the time, and there were Iranian claims that it had cracked the drone’s classified technology, although the U.S. said that was unlikely to be true.