http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_awst_story.jsp?id=news/HEZ.xml
Iranians Advising Hezbollah On Use Of Missiles, UAVs Aviation Week & Space Technology 08/09/2006 04:49:58 PM Iran has "hundreds" of technical advisors in Lebanon that have trained -- and continue to support -- Hezbollah forces in the use of sophisticated anti-ship and anti-tank missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), Aviation Week & Space Technology is reporting in its Aug. 14 edition. While no evidence has yet emerged publicly that Iranians are operating weaponry in combat or even trained Hezbollah insurgents, the magazine quotes a U.S. intelligence official as saying, "It's not just a matter of turning weapons over to Hezbollah." Key among the systems Iranians were likely involved with, Aviation Week reports, is the Hezbollah UAV shot down over the Mediterranean by an Israeli fighter Aug. 7. Obtaining the aircraft and learning to launch them and program their flight "would have taken outside help," an intelligence official says. The Iranian government has denied it has advisors or trainers in Lebanon. The U.S. State Department has said Iran provides arms and funding, but State won't answer questions about advisors. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has put the number of advisors at about 100. Aviation Week says an IDF infrared video taken from high altitude, directly over the interception, shows an Israeli fighter attacking the UAV. Shortly before coming abreast of the unmanned craft, the fighter fires what was likely a Python 4 missile controlled by a helmet-mounted sight. The missile makes a tight turn of more than 100 degrees and strikes the UAV, just after the fighter passes it. The video may have been doctored to disguise the true infrared signature of the Israeli fighter, the magazine says. Fragments of the UAV recovered from the water by the IDF show a 10-foot-wide wing broken at the fuselage with two vertical stabilizers -- marked with Hezbollah insignia -- well inboard of the wingtips. A smaller canard wing was mounted on the forward fuselage. An unattached flight control appears to be from the smaller forward airfoil. Israeli officials have described the UAV fished out of Israeli waters as a Mirsad-1 built by Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries. But the debris appears to be that of a related, albeit slightly larger, canard-wing Ababil 3 (Swallow). Israeli sources told Aviation Week that a few dozen Lebanese were trained to operate the aircraft by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and Hezbollah was supplied with as many as eight UAVs. Hezbollah officials have claimed the aircraft can carry 40-50 kilograms of explosives deep into Israel, but U.S. analysts questioned the claim because of the 3-3.25 meter wingspan and 10-25 hp engines attributed to UAVs of that size. Israeli analysts suggested the Ababil might just edge into the 40-kilo payload class. Hezbollah's first recorded incursion into Israeli airspace with a UAV was in late 2004. 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