Four Iran-made RQ-170 drones will start operational flights by the end of this year 1511141.

"We have plans to bring into operation, at least, four indigenized RQ-170 drones for missions by the end of this (Iranian) year (March 20)," Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said on Wednesday after the state-run TV displayed the footages of the first flight of an Iran-made RQ-170 drone.

The Iranian version of the RQ-170 drone has been manufactured through the reverse engineering of the US drone which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011 and has been equipped by the IRGC with bombing capability.

"We will not extradite the US RQ-170 drone since it is a (war) trophy, but if the US sanctions against Iran are lifted, maybe we will give the US an Iranian model of the drone," Hajizadeh said.

He said that the Iranian version of the RQ-170 has been built through a combination of the US designs and ideas and those of the Iranian experts.

On Monday, Hajizadeh announced that the Iranian version of the RQ-170 drone with the capability of conducting bombing and reconnaissance missions has had its first flight after tests.

"We had promised to fly the final model of RQ-170 in the second half of the current (Iranian) year (which started on March 21) and this has happened and the footage of its flight will be released soon," Hajizadeh told reporters in Tehran on Monday morning.

Elaborating on the Iranian version of the RQ-170 drone which has been manufactured through the reverse engineering of the US drone which was tracked and hunted down in Iran late in 2011 and has been equipped by the IRGC with bombing capability, Hajizadeh had informed in September that "the prototype model of this drone (which was 60% smaller than the original drone in size) flew about three months ago and God willing, the final model of the plane will fly this year".