Alwaght- Iran's military warned off US drones trying to approach the country's airspace during a recent drill, state broadcaster IRIB said on Tuesday.
According to Iran’s Fars News the incident took place as Iran was carrying out its Zulfiqar army drill. An MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-4 Global Hawk were noticed by Iranian radar apparently entering the “air defense identification area.”
While they were under full observation of the country's integrated air defense network from miles away…they were intercepted by the army air defense and faced a serious warning,” Iran’s media said. The report noted that the UAVs, which have a flight range of thousands of kilometers, “changed their route from approaching the borders of the Islamic Republic of Iran after the air defense was determined to intercept and warn.”
The Global Hawk is a large whale-like US surveillance drone. Iran shot one of them down in June 2019 during growing tensions. The drone is estimated to cost between $100 and $200 million dollars, depending on its configuration. It can be configured as a Triton model or a BAMS-D version which carries out broad area maritime surveillance. The Reaper by contrast can be armed and is similar to a US Predator. Both drones have origins in the 1990s and have been flying for decades and play a key in the US Global War on Terror. Both are too slow for modern-day-- air defenses and can be seen on radar, like the type Iran uses with its 3rd Khordad air defense system.
In 2011, Iran intercepted one of those, the RQ-170 Sentinel, and bring it down. The embarrassing incident led to the US asking for the drone back. Iran didn’t return the flying-wing-like drone and instead reverse engineered it and made a bunch of its own drones based on the US model.
The recent Iran Zulfiqar exercise included the use of drones and also practice with the army. Iran says its flew Mirage and F-4 fighters during the drill, as well as P-3 reconnaissance aircraft.
Admiral Amir Seyed Mahmoud Mousavi, the spokesman of the Zulfiqar 1400 joint exercise, announced that: "This exercise was held with the implementation of various military scenarios in the operational area with an area of more than one million square meters."
The objective of the drill was to improve Iran’s abilities along the coast. It was also practicing to operate further from the coastline. This included the use of drones and evaluations of “accuracy and destructive power of coastal, naval and air-based missile systems.”
"Also, the manifestation of the military authority as a powerful arm of the holy system of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the southeastern region of the country and ensuring investment security in this region, including our presence in international and distant open waters,” the spokesperson for the drill said.
