Iran continues to prove its ability to produce good-looking but non-functioning scale models of "advanced" weapons by unveiling the scale model of an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) it might use as a suicide weapon to sink U.S. Navy warships.

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The unnamed USV or sea drone, however, looks more like an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with its twin propellers; two aircraft-like rudders and two large pontoons. There is also confusion in Iranian media as to what this USV's true purpose it.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards that designed the USV claims the drone will be a "kamikaze drone" packed with explosives and rammed at U.S. warships. Since the USV can apparently also "fly" over land, the weapon can also be used against ground targets such as tanks.

Flying low, the drone is designed to skim less than a meter above the water at a speed of around 250 km/h. Flying high, the drone has a ceiling of 900 meters.

Other media reports claim the drone was developed primarily for maritime surveillance and can't be armed with missiles. But one state-owned media agency said the drone "can carry heavy payloads of explosives for combat missions to launch suicide attacks."

"Flying at a high cruising speed near the surface of the water, the aircraft can collide with the target and destroy it, either a vessel or an onshore command centre."

The drone is claimed to be equipped with an "advanced military camera with the capability of being used at night and during the day, as well as the possibility of being used in damp sea conditions."

State-owned media agencies released photographs of the drone on the ground, but no footage of the USV in flight, either over water or over land.

This October, Iran unveiled a bomb-carrying UAV based on a U.S. drone that crashed into its territory in December 2011.

Admitting it reverse engineered the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel UAV used mainly for high-altitude spying, Iran said its version called the "Saeqeh" (Thunderbolt) is armed with four smart bombs that can hit targets with "pinpoint accuracy."

Iran, however, only revealed pictures of a static version of the Saeqeh propped up on supports and festooned with four bombs. It hasn't shown video of the UAV in flight or revealed any of its flight characteristics.

 This omission has led some western analysts to assume the static model is unflyable and is for propaganda purposes alone.

Tagsunmanned surface vehicle, USV, unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, Revolutionary Guards, suicide drone, Saeqeh