Venezuela’s First Drone Produced with Iran Assistance

President Hugo Chavez has disclosed that Venezuela has manufactured its first drone in partnership with Iran, Russia and China, and said Caracas plans to begin exporting it soon.

“It is one of the three planes that we have manufactured here, and we are continuing to make them... not just for military use, (as) much of its equipment is for civilian use,” Chavez said in a meeting with top military and defense officials, AFP reported.

The drones were developed in cooperation with ‘Russia, China, Iran and other allied countries’, he said in remarks broadcast on radio and television.

Designed for surveillance, the machine ‘does not carry arms’ and has a 100-kilometer (60 mile) sweep. It can also conduct solo flights for some 90 minutes and attain an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,000 feet), said General Julio Morales, president of the state-run Venezuelan Military Industrial Company Cavim.

Chavez is a left-wing firebrand who often criticizes the United States, which has closely monitored for any signs of Iranian influence in Venezuela.

The United States--which has controversially waged drone strikes remotely against suspected militants in Pakistan and Yemen--expressed caution about Chavez’s announcement.