Iran Uses UAVs for Air Defense Missions

Iran announced on Monday that it has started using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for its air defense units as part of its broader plans for strengthening the country’s air defense capability.

Speaking to reporters on the occasion of the National Day of Air Defense here in Tehran today, Commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli said Iran has equipped its air defense units with Haazem (Determination) Drones.

The commander provided no further details about the Iranian drone, including its specifications or specific missions.

Esmayeeli further stressed Iran’s investment in the UAV industries, and stressed that the country has been able to upgrade its technology after downing US RQ-170 spy drone.

Iran announced on December 4 that its defense forces had downed the aircraft through a sophisticated cyber attack.

The drone is the first such loss by the US. US officials have described the loss of the aircraft in Iran as a setback and a fatal blow to the stealth drone program.

The RQ-170 has special coatings and a batwing shape designed to help it penetrate other nations’ air defenses undetected. The existence of the aircraft, which is made by Lockheed Martin, has been known since 2009, when a model was photographed at the main US airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The unmanned surveillance plane lost by the United States in Iran was a stealth aircraft being used for secret missions by the CIA, US officials admitted in December.

The aircraft is among the highly sensitive surveillance platform in the CIA’s fleet that was shaped and designed to evade enemy defenses.