The Iranian Army on Tuesday launched large-scale joint drone drills across the country, including the coastlines of the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
This move comes as a challenge to Western powers gearing up to maintain sanctions set to expire according to the timetable in the 2015 nuclear agreement.
The state-owned “Mehr” news agency quoted General Alireza Sheikh, the spokesperson for the drills, as saying that the joint exercises will last for two days.
According to Sheikh, the drills are being conducted under the supervision of the operations room that coordinates between the army and its parallel units within the Revolutionary Guards.
Sheikh clarified that the maneuvers are exclusively focused on drones in an attempt to “assess the readiness of the armed forces for potential threats from the enemy.”
He also noted the use of reconnaissance, offensive, and suicide drones in the drills.
The exercises involve close to 200 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from the Iranian Army's four units of Ground Force, Navy, Air Force and Air Defense Force, according to Habibollah Sayyari, the drill’s commander.
Sayyari stated that the joint drills also involve the strategic electronic warfare unit, reported Iranian media.
He mentioned that in the early hours of the maneuvers, “surveillance aircraft successfully carried out border monitoring operations, identified training targets, and captured images from the training area.”
“Evaluating domestically produced aircraft by experts from within, and understanding how to use drones according to the nature of the mission, are among the primary objectives of this training,” said Brig. Gen. Kioumars Heydari, who heads the Iranian military’s ground forces.
Heydari also pointed out that the Iranian navy was conducting these exercises in seven border provinces.
The Iranian military had been grappling with a shortage of modern equipment until just a few years ago, before acquiring drones and missile systems, including ballistic and cruise missiles.
In May 2022, the Iranian army announced a shift in the modernization of its equipment, particularly drones.
