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Commander: Iran Detecting, Tracking All Stealth Flights in Region

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The top commander of the Iranian Air Defense Force said on Tuesday that the country’s radar and air defense units are monitoring and tracking all stealth aircraft flying in the region and have even warned and shooed away many reconnaissance planes seeking to approach the country’s borders.
“We have issued warnings to (alien) reconnaissance planes which approached our borders and they responded to our alerts and moved away from our borders,” Commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli told FNA on Tuesday.

He explained that around 10% of the information available about the current situation of stealth reconnaissance planes or fighter jets are presented by the manufacturing country, but “we have to be fully informed of their situation and operations because if their flight times and schedules escape our 100% monitoring, then we will be doomed to fail and get surprised”.

Esmayeeli also explained that the stealth technology used by reconnaissance planes is the same as the technology used in the US F22 fighters, a number of which have been deployed in the UAE.

In similar remarks in October, Esmayeeli had stressed Iran’s capability to confront US spy planes and drones, and said his forces have so far warned tens of US spy planes, including the advanced Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, to keep away from Iranian airspace.

“In the last ten years, we have issued countless warnings even to those US AWACS airplanes which were flying over Iraq’s airspace or along the free airspace of the Persian Gulf,” Esmayeeli told FNA at the time, and noted that the spy planes received immediate warnings when they tried to approach Iran’s airspace in violation of the international regulations.

Iran has downed many US drones, a number of which use the same stealth technology that F22 does. Iranian experts have even reproduced these downed aircraft after conducting reverse engineering on them.

Iranian experts in December 2011 hacked the US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth aircraft and brought it down it by hacking its control system and uploading a new program to it.

Iran later copied the US RQ-170 drone after decoding its hard disc.

Also, on December 4, 2012, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi announced that his forces had hunted a US drone over the Persian Gulf after the drone violated the country’s airspace, adding that the hunted UAV was a ScanEagle drone.

Iran has recently made giant advancements in aerospace industries, specially in designing and manufacturing pilotless drones.

In April, the Iranian Air Defense Force displayed its Sarir (Throne) drones on the occasion of the National Army Day.

Speaking to reporters at the time, Esmayeeli stated that Sarir is a long-range, long-endurance radar evading air defense drone.

“Sarir is capable of carrying cameras and air-to-air missiles and tens of this UAV have so far been produced and used,” he added.

Also earlier this year, Iran displayed its most advanced UAV designed and manufactured by the country’s engineers.

The stealth drone, named Hemaseh (Epic), was unveiled in a special ceremony in the presence of Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi.

The ceremony was held on the sidelines of a conference to commemorate the defense ministry’s martyrs.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony, Vahidi stated that the drone has been built by defense industry experts and is capable of conducting surveillance and reconnaissance missions as well as combat missions simultaneously.

Earlier, Deputy Defense Minister for Industrial and Research Affairs Mohammad Eslami had told reporters that Hemaseh enjoys higher capabilities compared with other Iran-made UAVs and can fly at higher altitudes and enjoys longer flight endurance.

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