Iran is one of the world’s top missile and drone-manufacturing powers, and even the United States military recognizes the Islamic Republic’s defense capabilities, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh has said.
“We are among the top powers in the world in the fields of defense, missiles and now drones,” Hajizadeh said at an exhibition of Iranian aerospace achievements this week.
“Today, we have reached a point where even the terrorist military of the United States openly admits that it is not seeking a conflict with the Islamic Republic, because it is unable to resist Iranian defense prowess,” the commander added.
The Islamic Republic’s domestic defense capabilities are now “beyond imagination” compared to what they were in the 1980s, during the brutal Iran-Iraq War, Hajizadeh noted.
Today, for example, Iran’s military “can hit moving floating targets or carry out reconnaissance missions anywhere using advanced undetectable drones,” Hajizadeh said.
The commander did not elaborate on this new advanced unmanned naval system.
The Islamic Republic showcased a new domestically created and produced naval remote-operated vehicle (ROV) in December. The underwater drone is said to be designed for minesweeping operations, and to be capable of operating up to 24 hours at a time at depths up to 200 meters. The vehicle is expected to prove an important addition to the Navy’s HR-53 electromagnetic signal-generating mine-sweeping helicopters and manned minesweepers like the Shahin.
Hajizadeh warned late last week during celebrations of the 45th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that the US should keep its distance from Iran, stressing that the Islamic Republi does not want war but would be ready to respond to any threat. He further urged Americans and Westerners in general to be aware of where their governments are spending their tax money.
Iran’s military-industrial complex has undergone an unparalleled transformation over the past four-and-a-half decades from a US and European dependency to one of the few regional and world powers with the capability to develop, create and build an array of weapons completely from scratch. Taking advantage of its budding status as a global scientific and technological superpower, the Islamic Republic’s defense engineers have turned into masters of asymmetric warfare, showing a penchant for creating and fielding homegrown armaments to counter adversaries who are much-better funded, more numerous and more heavily armed.
Ballistic and cruise missiles and a vast array of mostly naval drones are two of Iran’s top specialties, with the country seeing the former as its main strategic deterrent against large-scale foreign aggression, and the latter as a key tool in support of its conventional forces.
Iranian officials and military commanders have spent months warning the US and its Israeli allies not to try to drag Tehran into a regional conflagration amid the ongoing crisis in Gaza, warning that any aggression would be met with an immediate and crushing response, up to and including missile strikes on Israel and against US military targets across the Persian Gulf.
Seeking US assistance, Israeli officials have sought to pull Washington into a new Middle East misadventure, targeting Iranian advisors assisting the Syrian government in its fight against terrorism, and attacking Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese political and militant movement with security links to Iran.
Tel Aviv and Washington have in turn accused Iran of helping Yemen’s Houthi militiamen in their ongoing operation in the Red Sea against Israeli-affiliated shipping. Iran has denied helping the Houthis directly, but has widely praised their operations against the “Zionist regime.”