Iranian Air Force to deploy UAVs along borders

Arabian Aerospace ^ | 7/7/2010 | Arabian Aerospace

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

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

[ASA Vet]

Droning Pingy

[doc1019]

Target practice for our fighter pilots? Cool!

[charles1252]

"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."

To keep track of their own defectors in battle? lol

[tet68]

Send more UAVs our gunners need the practice.

[Old Sarge]

Off-the-shelf airframes, no doubt.

Probably only the Revolutionary Guard units will get them initially. I can’t see line divisions getting these, unless they want a static defense.

[tet68]

Unmanned vehicles?
How is a good shahad supposed to get to paradise?
When one is shot down, does a mullah back at the base
shoot the operator?

[LibWhacker]

I made a bunch of these to patrol my yard. But my arm gets awfully tired throwing paper airplanes into the air all the time.

[joelt]

The designation for said UAV is B1RD.

[dusttoyou]

Magic carpets!

[Yo-Yo]

Top Secret spy photographs of a prototype of the Iranian UAVs have been smuggled out of the country and are shown here for the first time. Please note, however, that the porcine-related program name will be changed to something more Islamic-friendly when the UAV system goes into full rate production.