page_title: HESA Ababil
section_title: Ababil-2
hierarchical_section_title: HESA Ababil / Variants / Ababil-2
caption_attribution_description: English: An Iranian ababil made by me.
context_page_description: The HESA Ababil is an Iranian single-engine multirole tactical unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company. The Ababil comes in two main lines, the Ababil-2 and the Ababil-3, of which the former has a number of variants. It is considered a long-range, low-technology drone.
  The Ababil program was begun during the Iran–Iraq War. The Ababil-2, developed in the 1990s, has rudimentary surveillance capabilities and can be used as a loitering munition, but is mainly used as a target drone. The larger and more capable Ababil-3, introduced in the 2000s, was designed for Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance use and has improved surveillance capabilities. Overall, the Ababil is "a pretty rough-and-ready system": cheap, simple, and easy to use.
  The Ababil-2 and Ababil-3 have been widely exported to governments and non-state actors in the Middle East and elsewhere. The Ababil has been used in the 2006 Lebanon War, the Iraq War, and the Sudanese, Syrian, Iraqi, and Yemeni civil wars.
context_section_description: The Ababil-2 has an improved flight-control system. Jane's reports that the Ababil-2 had its first flight in 1997 while Galen Wright writes that it entered production in 1992. Both sources agree the Ababil-2 was publicly revealed in 1999. Some sources also designate the Ababil-2 as the Ababil-II.
caption: Artist's impression of Ababil-2
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