Saqr a line of

Unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

s produced by the

King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST; ) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is a governmental organization established in 1977 as the Saudi Arabian National Center for Science & Technology (SANCST; ); in 1985, it was renamed King Abdulaziz ...

for the government of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. , three models had been developed: Saqr 2, Saqr 3 and Saqr 4. All three models are manufactured from

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a common type of fibre-reinforced plastic, fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened i ...

and carbon composite material, making them lightweight and stealthy. The Saudi government has developed the craft for research purposes, and the units are equipped with cameras for

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other flight, airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wi ...

. According to Prince Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed, the Saqr-1 has a range of more than 2,500 km and can remain airborne for more than 24 hours. The UAV flies at an average altitude of 20,000 feet. It features a

Ka band The Ka band (pronounced as either "kay-ay band" or "ka band") is a portion of the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The designation "Ka-band" is from Kurz-above, which stems from the German word ''kurz,'' meaning "short". There ...

satellite communications system. Its weapons are Chinese AR-1 laser-guided missile and FT-9 guided bomb. The units were first developed in 2012 with a total of 38 built .

Variants

;Saqr 1 السعودية تكشف عن طائرتها بدون طيار صقر1.
BBC Arabic، نشر في 4 أبريل 2018، دخل في 8 أبريل 2018. ;Saqr 2: ;Saqr 3: ;Saqr 4:

References

Sources

* Unmanned aerial vehicles of Saudi Arabia {{UAV-stub