On the morning of Monday, February 14, 2022 the hangar of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force UAV base in Mahidasht, 30 km from Kermanshah, Iran, caught fire in the Israeli army. Reconnaissance drones stationed at the base; Ababil-3, Mohajer-4, as well as Mohajer-6 reconnaissance-combat and Shahed 191 had an operational radius of 150 to 200 km.
According to the Iranian National Congress News Agency, the logistics base, located 100 kilometers from the Iraqi border, plays a key role in attacking Quds Force drones, Kata’eb Hezbollah , and al-Hashdal al-Shaabi at US and allied military bases in Iraq, storing and sending needed items to build suicide drones such as Shahed 136, Samad 2 and Samad 3 in Iraq, items such as Wankel or two-cylinder engines made by Mado, GPS modules, guidance and so on.
Due to the fact that the fire could be seen from a long distance, news and related information were published in the local media, which forced the public relations of the Prophet’s Corps in Kermanshah province to react. Their official statement reads: “This Monday morning, a fire broke out in a warehouse for storing engine oil and flammable materials in one of the IRGC support bases in the Mahidasht district of Kermanshah, causing damage to a shed. There were no casualties in this incident. The fire was contained by timely action of the rescue workers present at the scene. Expert teams have been on the scene since the beginning of the fire to thoroughly investigate the cause of the incident.”
On satellite images of the Mahidasht region of Kermanshah on February 10 and 15, which was made available to the public by one of the commercial satellites of the Sentinel Hub Company, the burning of the only hangar of this drone base can be seen as a result of Monday morning incident; While none of the other buildings and facilities of this base have been damaged.
According to a satellite image on September 24, 2021, the base’s runway was lined up, and a small passenger terminal within 500 meters of the only warehouse was built. The demarcation of the runway and the construction of this terminal could indicate the use of this base by the IRGC Air Force to transfer its personnel using passenger planes to small areas such as Embraer 145 to this area, instead of using Kermanshah International Airport to avoid paying airport services to the parent company.
The latest satellite images of the drone base indicate the start of construction of at least three new buildings at the site. These images also show the presence of several trucks carrying UAVs and their command and control rooms in the vicinity of its only warehouse, which may indicate an increase in UAV activities at the center in recent months.
