Iran’s Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that it had launched a massive exercise involving 50 drones that are based on a US Sentinel drone the Iranians captured in 2011. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was the strongest exercise of its kind to date, the Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday.
Named “Beit al-Maqdis,” a reference to Jerusalem, the
operation was attended by the commander of the IRGC, Hossein Salami, and IRGC
Aerospace Force commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh. Fars News and Tasnim News both
reported details of the operation, noting that, “for the first time, 50 Iranian
drones on the RQ-170 [US Sentinel] model operated with a number of assault and
combat drones."
It was the first time, Iran says, that so many drones operated
simultaneously in an “offensive operation” at distances of more than 1,000 km
away from each other. They trained to strike predetermined targets with “high
precision.” IRGC Ground Force commander Maj.-Gen. Golam Ali Rashid boasted that
while the US has said Iran is failing 40 years after the Islamic Revolution, in
fact “today we are witnessing the strongest maneuvers of the IRGC’s Aerospace
Forces.” Enemies would be “humiliated and feel shame,” according to the
statement.
Salami said he appreciated the power of the IRGC’s air arm
and that it shows that despite US sanctions, Iran is achieving success. Tehran
says that it has created an indigenous and advanced copy of the Sentinel. Iran
has showcased two versions of these copies since 2016, but video from the
“Jerusalem” operation on Thursday showed them being lashed to trucks for the
exercise. It wasn’t clear why a drone needs to be launched from a pick-up
truck, if it is an “advanced” drone. Claiming that the IRGC is at the forefront
of modern UAVs seemed to be in contrast to the photos from the operation, photos
that the IRGC itself had released. However, Hajizadeh also pointed to drones
that look like the US Predator MQ-1 as evidence that Iran has achieved results.
The Shahed 129, first flown in 2012, is Iran’s copy of the Predator.
The point of the drill is to showcase Iran’s military prowess.
It comes in the wake of a large naval drill in February and frequent new tests
of ballistic missiles. Last year, Iran fired ballistic missiles at Kurdish
opposition groups in Iraq and also at ISIS in Syria. It is flexing its muscles
in the Arabian Gulf and has allegedly supplied Houthi rebels in Yemen with
advanced missile and drone technology.
Hajizadeh said that: "One of the features of this exercise is the power to design and plan co-flying UAVs in a very small geographic area that has brought about the rise of a new air power in Islamic Iran.” According to the reports, the drones operated in several provinces in Iran.