IDF Hermes-900 Drone Hunts And Kills IRGC Aerospace Officers In Kermanshah Before They Could Launch Shahed-136 Drones At Israel
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has released dramatic video footage showing an Israeli Hermes-900 armed drone tracking and eliminating Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force officers inside Iranian territory in the Kermanshah region of western Iran — killing the operatives seconds before they were able to launch a wave of Shahed-136 one-way attack drones toward Israel. The release of the footage, with its precise and clinical imagery of the strike, represents one of the most vivid public demonstrations yet of Israel's ability to conduct persistent, real-time surveillance and targeted offensive operations thousands of kilometres inside Iranian territory amid the ongoing Iran-US-Israel war.
The Hermes-900, an Israeli-built medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle developed by Elbit Systems, was operating deep inside Iranian airspace when it identified the IRGC operatives at the drone launch site. According to the IDF, the drone operators had just entered the launch site — meaning the window between the moment of identification and the moment Israel had to act was extremely narrow. Israeli commanders made the decision to strike immediately, and the Hermes-900 deployed precision Mikholit air-to-surface munitions, eliminating the operatives sequentially in a series of targeted hits that neutralised the threat before a single Shahed drone could leave the ground.
What Is The Hermes-900 — Israel's Eye And Sword In The Sky
The Hermes-900 is one of the most capable medium-altitude, long-endurance drone platforms in operational service anywhere in the world. Manufactured by Elbit Systems of Israel, it was developed as an evolution of the smaller Hermes-450 platform, with significantly expanded payload capacity, endurance, and operational range. The aircraft has a wingspan of approximately 15 metres, can carry a payload of up to 350 kilograms, and can remain airborne for over 36 hours at altitudes of up to 30,000 feet — giving it the ability to loiter over a target area for extraordinarily long periods while transmitting real-time intelligence to command centres hundreds or thousands of kilometres away.
In its armed configuration, the Hermes-900 can carry a range of precision air-to-surface munitions, including the Mikholit — a small, highly accurate guided bomb developed specifically for use by Israeli drones against time-sensitive targets. The Mikholit's small explosive payload is precisely calibrated to minimise collateral damage while achieving maximum effect against targeted personnel and equipment — making it ideal for the kind of surgical, personnel-elimination missions the IDF has been conducting against Iran's missile and drone operators throughout the current conflict.
The Hermes-900's operational history includes extensive use in Israeli operations over Gaza, Lebanon, and — since the February 28, 2026 outbreak of the current Iran-Israel war — over Iranian territory itself. The IRGC has claimed to have captured at least one Hermes-900 intact using what it described as an advanced air defence electronic interception system, a claim that raised concerns in Israeli intelligence circles about potential technology compromise. Iran's IRGC announced on March 3, 2026 that it had downed a Hermes-900 drone near Kerman city, handing it to aerospace engineers for examination. Despite this setback, the IDF has continued to deploy the platform extensively across Iran, with the Kermanshah strike being only the latest in a long series of documented operations.
The Shahed-136 — The Weapon Israel Was Racing To Stop
The Shahed-136 one-way attack drone — also known as a loitering munition or "kamikaze drone" — is one of Iran's most extensively deployed and strategically significant weapons in the current conflict. Manufactured by Iran's Shahed Aviation Industries, a company sanctioned by the United States in November 2022 for its support of the IRGC Aerospace Force, the Shahed-136 is a delta-winged, propeller-driven drone designed to fly to a target and destroy it on impact. Its low radar cross-section, slow speed, and low-altitude flight profile make it difficult to detect and intercept, while its low unit cost means Iran can deploy it in large swarms that overwhelm air defence systems.
Data compiled by Bloomberg estimates that Iran has fired more than 2,400 Shahed-136 drones at Israel and other regional countries since the war began on February 28, 2026 — a staggering number that underscores the industrial scale of Iran's drone warfare campaign. The drones have targeted Israeli cities, US military bases across the Gulf, and civilian infrastructure from Kuwait to Bahrain, inflicting damage across the entire region. The IDF's decision to prioritise the destruction of Shahed launch operators and facilities — even inside Iranian territory — reflects an understanding that stopping the drones at source is far more efficient than intercepting them in flight.
The Shahed Aviation Industries Production Facility in Isfahan, which manufactures the Shahed-136 and its variants, was itself struck by the US-Israeli combined force in early March 2026, with commercially available satellite imagery confirming significant damage to the facility. The IDF has also cratered the runway and caused significant structural damage to the IRGC Aerospace Force's Ali Akbar Drone Base in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province — one of the primary operational launch facilities for Shahed drone attacks against Israel. The Kermanshah strike is part of this broader and systematic campaign to degrade Iran's ability to generate and sustain its drone offensive.
Operations Roaring Lion And Epic Fury — The Military Framework
The IDF's strike in Kermanshah sits within the broader context of two ongoing joint US-Israeli military operations that have been running since the outbreak of hostilities on February 28, 2026. Operation Roaring Lion is the Israeli component of the campaign, encompassing the IDF's strikes on Iranian military, nuclear, and internal security infrastructure across Iran. Operation Epic Fury is the corresponding US Central Command (CENTCOM) operation, involving American B-2 stealth bombers, B-1 Lancers, F-22 Raptors, and naval aviation assets striking hardened targets — including underground nuclear facilities and ballistic missile complexes — that require munitions beyond Israel's current conventional inventory.
The combined force has, by its own accounting, struck over 400 targets in western and central Iran in a single 24-hour period during the height of operations. The IDF has confirmed destroying approximately 75 percent of Iran's missile launchers, degrading Iran's ability to generate large ballistic missile barrages against Israel. Multiple IRGC Aerospace Force drone bases have been struck and put out of action. The Quds Force headquarters in Tehran has been hit. IRGC ballistic missile research facilities, command centres, and internal security infrastructure across at least a dozen Iranian provinces have been targeted and destroyed.
The scale and precision of the combined campaign has forced Iran to adapt its tactics. Unable to use fixed launch facilities that have been destroyed or are under constant surveillance, Iranian drone operators have been moving to dispersed, mobile launch positions — setting up in fields, industrial zones, and remote areas in western Iran in an attempt to evade Israeli surveillance. The Kermanshah strike suggests that Israel's persistent aerial surveillance is tracking these mobile operators in real time and striking them before they can launch — closing the window of opportunity Iran hoped dispersal would provide.
The Broader Pattern — Israel Strikes Drone Operators Repeatedly In Western Iran
The Kermanshah strike was not an isolated incident. It is part of a documented and consistent pattern of Israeli pre-emptive strikes against Iranian drone and missile operators throughout the current conflict. On March 11, 2026, Israeli fighter jets struck a group of IRGC drone array operatives at a launch site in western Iran — the IDF confirmed the strike occurred shortly after the operatives entered the launch site, again emphasising the speed and precision with which Israel is acting on intelligence about imminent Iranian launches.
Earlier in the conflict, on March 10, the IDF confirmed the identification of several operatives in Iran's ballistic missile programme in western Iran who were preparing to launch missiles toward Israel. An Israeli Air Force fighter jet struck the launcher and killed the operatives before any launch occurred. The IDF has also confirmed multiple strikes on IRGC infrastructure in Tehran — including the Quds Force headquarters, a ballistic missile research facility within the IRGC's central military university, and several weapons storage and air defence system sites.
The combined US-Israeli force has also severely degraded Iran's internal security and Basij paramilitary infrastructure. The IDF confirmed on March 10 that it had destroyed the majority of the IRGC's Internal Security Forces main headquarters in Ilam Province, along with multiple Basij unit headquarters. This targeting of internal security infrastructure has a dual purpose — degrading the regime's ability to conduct military operations while simultaneously weakening the apparatus the Iranian government relies on to suppress internal dissent and protest.
Iran's Countermeasures — 2,400 Drones, Missiles And A Captured Hermes-900
Iran has not been passive in the face of the Israeli onslaught. Despite the systematic destruction of its launch infrastructure, the IRGC has continued to fire large volumes of Shahed drones and ballistic missiles at Israel and at US and Gulf military assets across the region. More than 2,400 Shahed-136 drones and at least 789 ballistic missiles have been fired since February 28 — numbers that, despite Israel's degradation of launch infrastructure, reflect the sheer scale of Iran's pre-war drone and missile stockpiles.
Iran has also achieved some significant successes of its own in the drone warfare contest. The capture of an intact Hermes-900 in early March was a genuine intelligence coup — the aircraft was described as fully armed when it was brought down, and Iran handed it to IRGC aerospace engineers for technical examination. A captured armed drone of this sophistication potentially provides Iran with insight into Israeli drone navigation, communication encryption, targeting sensors, and weapons integration systems.
Ukraine — whose military has accumulated more practical experience countering Shahed drones than almost any other country — announced on March 8 that it would send military personnel and drone interception experts to Gulf states to share its knowledge and help strengthen regional air defences against Iranian drone attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the deployment, noting that three Gulf states were also seeking to purchase Ukrainian Shahed interceptor systems. The involvement of Ukraine in the Middle East drone war — as a supplier of expertise against Iranian technology — represents one of the most unexpected geopolitical subplots of the entire conflict.
What The Footage Tells Us — Inside Israel's Deep Strike Capability
The release of the Hermes-900 strike footage by the IDF is itself a deliberate act of strategic communication. By publishing the video — showing the drone tracking the IRGC operatives, waiting for them to enter the launch site, and then eliminating them with precision munitions before a single Shahed could launch — Israel is sending a multi-layered message to several audiences simultaneously.
To the IRGC, the message is stark and personal: we can see you, we know what you are doing, and we will kill you before you can act. To Iran's leadership, the message is strategic: your ability to generate and sustain a drone offensive is being systematically dismantled, and even mobile dispersal cannot guarantee your operators' survival. To the Israeli public — living under the threat of drone and missile attack and following the conflict anxiously from bomb shelters — the footage is reassurance: your military is not just defending, it is hunting. And to the international community, the footage is evidence of the extraordinary depth of Israeli intelligence penetration of Iranian military operations.
The war in the air over Iran is not the abstract, invisible conflict of satellite images and official statements. It is a real-time, high-speed, life-or-death contest playing out over the mountains and plains of western Iran — and for now, Israel's persistent drones appear to be winning it.
Pidgin Section: IDF Hermes-900 Drone Kill IRGC Officers For Iran Before Dem Launch Shahed Drones To Attack Israel!
Israel don release video wey go make your jaw drop! IDF Hermes-900 drone — the kind wey fit fly for 36 hours without stopping — track IRGC Aerospace officers for Kermanshah, western Iran. The officers enter launch site to prepare Shahed-136 attack drones wey dem wan fire toward Israel. But before dem even fit press button, Israeli drone release Mikholit precision bombs and kill dem one by one. Mission abort — permanently!
The Shahed-136 na the dangerous kamikaze drone wey Iran don fire over 2,400 of dem since the war begin on February 28, 2026. Dem cheap to make, dem fly low, dem hard to detect. Iran don been dey use dem to attack Israel, US bases for Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and other Gulf countries. Israel know say the best way to stop dem na to kill the operators BEFORE dem launch — and that na exactly wetin dem do for Kermanshah.
This strike dey part of Operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury — the joint Israel-US military campaign wey don destroy 75% of Iran's missile launchers, bomb the Shahed drone factory for Isfahan, destroy IRGC headquarters for Tehran, and kill operators across western Iran anytime dem try to set up launch positions.
Meanwhile, Iran also claim say dem capture one Hermes-900 drone intact for early March — and dem hand am over to their engineers to study. So both sides dey learn from each other in this drone war. But the scoreboard currently dey heavily favour Israel — and this latest footage from Kermanshah na more proof of that. 🇳🇬🔥
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Sources: Jerusalem Post, Critical Threats, Al Jazeera, IDF Spokesperson Unit — March 11-15, 2026