Yemeni Air Defenses Shoot down US Drone MQ-1 Predator in Sanaa

YemenExtra

SH.A.

The Saudi-led coalition warplanes continued to fly intensively over the capital city of Sanaa two hours after another drone plane was shot down on the outskirts of the capital on Friday midnight.

It has been observed that coalition warplanes deliberately and intensively fly high on the upper sky of the capital, which is interpreted as avoiding low-flying, for fear of being dropped by air defenses of the Yemeni army.

The air defenses of the army forces on Friday shot down an unmanned military aircraft belonging to the coalition in the sky of the capital Sanaa, “carrying out surveillance mission,” a military source said.

He confirmed that the air defenses targeted a modern hostile drone aircraft using a suitable weapon in Hamdan district of Sanaa.

Video footage released by the military media of the army forces showed the moment when the U.S. MQ-9- unmanned aircraft over the sky of Hamdan district outskirt of Sanaa province.

The same source explained that the plane, which was dropped from the type of American MQ1 while was carrying out espionage operations in the sky of the capital Sana’a.

Air defense of the Yemeni army had dropped the U.S. unmanned aircraft of the MQ-9-Type, belonging to the coalition on October 1, 2017, in the market of Qadissiyah in the center of the capital Sana’a.

The US MQ1 aircraft is classified from the latest aircraft manufactured by the United States Air Force General Atomics, and the flight steering and control crew consists of 82 people to carry out a 24-hour mission.

“The length of the US MQ1 aircraft is 8.22 meters, with a height of 2.1 meters, and a length of 14.8 meters, which enables it to fly at approximately 70 knots and to reach 1100 km and an altitude of 7620 meters.”

The aircraft, although relatively large in size, is lightweight, with a “net weight of 512 kg, with a weight of 1020 kg, designed to withstand 204 kg anti-tank rockets”.