Iranian Air Force to deploy UAVs along borders

Speaking in an interview with the Farsi News Agency (FNA), Deputy Lieutenant Commander of Army's Air Force for Operations General Majid Pirhadi underlined that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) will cover all the country's border regions in the near future.

"We are seeking to equip all the country's central air bases with long-range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) but for now equipping bases along borders sets a priority," Pirhadi said.

The commander highlighted the growing applications of UAVs in Iran's armed forces, and announced that the Air Force command headquarters plans to form a command-and-control centre for UAVs.

"Utilisation of the UAVs plays a vital role in the strengthening of the Armed Forces' offensive and defensive capabilities. Accordingly, we seek to equip all the country's air bases with different types of drones," he said, adding that all border bases in western and southern Iran will be equipped with UAVs by the end of summer.  The  drones are currently tasked with intelligence and information gathering and reconnaissance missions and he said  the Iranian Army plans to use different types of drones for combat, reconnaissance, disruption and communication missions.

Last month, Lieutenant Commander of Iran's Air Force Mohsen Darrebaqi was reported as saying that the Iranian Air Force plans to form a battalion of UAVs in all its bases across the country.  "These UAV battalions have already been formed in four bases,"  he said.

The commander said that Iran has recently made good progress in the air industry and has succeeded in gaining the technical know-how for producing stealth aircraft and drones.

Arabian Aerospace reported in February that Iran had inaugurated the production line of two home-made UAVs with bombing and reconnaissance capabilities. The two hi-tech drones named 'Ra'd' (Thunder) and 'Nazir' (Harbinger) are capable of conducting long-range reconnaissance, patrolling, assault and bombing missions with high precision.

Ra'd is planned for assault and bombing missions and has the capability to destroy specified targets with high pinpoint precision.

Iran successfully tested a home-made radar-evading UAV with bombing capabilities last June. Also in 2008, the country's defence Industries launched production lines of two  home-made fighter jets, namely Saeqeh (Thunderbolt) and Azarakhsh (Lightening).Analysts in the region have said that once Iran's UAV enters the scene of aerial missions, it will enhance the reconnaissance, patrolling and defensive power of the republic's armed force. The defence force has built a plant in the northern province of Mazandaran  to mass produce UAVs for different civilian and military missions.