Qods Raad 85

Overview

The Raad 85 (Thunder 85) (Also R'ad 85, Ra'ad 85, etc) is an Iranian loitering munition developed in the 2010s. It was designed by the Iranian Army's Research and Self-sufficiency Jihad Organization in cooperation with Qods Aviation for the Iranian Army Ground Force. It is an unmanned "suicide drone" that is remotely guided to its target by a human operator. It is designed to be operated in an electronic warfare environment. General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan of the Iranian Armed Forces has stated, "This drone is like a mobile bomb, and is capable of destroying fixed and mobile targets." In 2015, five Ra’ad-85 drones were used to strike an Ahrar Al-Sham military base in Syria’s Idlib province, as part of the Syrian Civil War.