Saudi Arabia Converts Manned Aircraft Into Military Drones

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST)  announced the success of a project to convert a manned aircraft into a drone.

This was disclosed by KACST President Prince Turki Bin Saud. He said that the successful field test of the drone named “Al-Nawras” has many strategic advantages, Saudi Gazzette reported today.

“A squadron of three drones of Al-Nawras has successfully been flying through one control room to carry out joint missions and these strategic types of drones can fly up to 30 hours,” he said.

Prince Turki said that this type of drones is part of KACST’s projects as part of Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Program 2020 and Vision 2030.

According to KACST chief, the formation of drones that perform joint missions can be used as an air station to transfer a high amount of information from the aircraft to the ground operations room. They are equipped with day and night high-resolution cameras and can also carry different payloads.

He said the drone squadron can be utilized in the military field such that a drone can conduct aerial photography while a second drone can be used for jamming enemy assets while a third one can carry out tactical (attack) missions.

Details of which old manned aircraft were used in the drone conversion project were not revealed. While it is relatively easy to convert rotary wing aircraft into drones, converting fixed wing aircraft can be complex affair.