Arash-2
The "bigger brother" of the Shahed-136 — Iran's large, long-range kamikaze drone, unveiled with the boast that it was built to hit Tel Aviv and Haifa. Claimed to fly ~2,000 km with an anti-radar seeker, it's real and fielded — and US forces have already blown one up.
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The "bigger brother" of the Shahed-136 — Iran's large, long-range one-way attack drone, unveiled in 2022 with the explicit boast that it was designed to strike Tel Aviv and Haifa. Built for deep strategic strike and anti-radar work, it is real and fielded; US forces have publicly destroyed one. As ever with Iranian systems, the headline numbers are state claims.
Overview
The Arash-2 (آرش-۲) is Iran's large delta-wing long-range loitering munition — a roughly 4.5 m piston-engined, rocket-boosted (RATO-launched) one-way attack drone built for deep strategic strike and, Iran claims, suppression of enemy air defenses (anti-radar/SEAD). It is widely described as the Shahed-136's bigger brother: longer-ranged, with a far larger warhead. Two corrections up front, because the public record is muddled: its maker is the Defense Industries Organization (DIO), within Iran's MODAFL — not HESA or Qods (HESA builds the Shahed) — and it is an upgraded Kian-2 (the Kian's turbojet swapped for a piston engine). It must also not be confused with the "Arash-e Kamangir," a separate Iranian air-defense system. For BattlePolicy it sits in the Iran watch as a strategic-strike drone — and a case study in separating Iranian claims from verified fact.
Development
Iran unveiled the Arash-2 in September 2022, when army ground-forces commander Brig. Gen. Kioumars Heydari said it was "specially designed for Haifa and Tel Aviv". It evolved from the earlier Kian family as a cheaper, longer-ranged strategic strike weapon. On the much-repeated Iran-to-Russia story: it is unconfirmed. The only basis is a 2022 think-tank prediction that Russia "may order" the Arash-2 plus a Ukrainian-intelligence claim of instructor training — there is no documented Arash-2 deployment or recovered wreckage in Ukraine, and the verified 2026 flow is the reverse (Russia returning upgraded Shaheds to Iran). This entry therefore does not claim Ukraine use.
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