Army Launches Largest Drone Exercise

 General Baqeri: Our Fingers Are on Trigger

TEHRAN (Kayhan Intl.) -- Iran launched exercises featuring a wide array of domestically produced drones on Tuesday, days after the anniversary of the U.S. assassination of a top Iranian general by a drone strike in Iraq.
Hundreds of unmanned aircraft, including "suicide drones”, are being used in the two-day drill, with exercises in both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat.
Iran and the regional forces it backs have increasingly relied in recent years on drones in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Iran’s armed forces are to test combat drones used as bombers, interceptors and in reconnaissance missions in the two-day exercises in central Semnan province, the Fars news agency said.
"The fingers of our heroic armed forces are on the trigger, and if enemies commit the slightest mistake, the armed forces will surely respond fiercely,” said General Muhammad Baqeri, chief of staff of the armed forces.
Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif has said U.S. President Donald Trump may be trying to find an excuse to attack Iran in his last days in office, or the occupying regime of Israel might try to provoke a war.  
The exercises come two days after the first anniversary of the assassination of Iranian commander General Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad airport, and two weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
Beyond surveillance, Iranian drones can drop munitions and also carry out a "kamikaze” flight when loaded with explosives and flown into a target, according to a U.S. official who spoke to Reuters here.
Iran has developed a large domestic arms industry in the face of unjust sanctions and embargoes barring it from importing many weapons. It produces a wide variety of advanced weapons systems and equipment based on its own technological capabilities.
Army Deputy Commander for Operations Rear Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi said the Islamic Republic is today one of the world’s most powerful countries in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Deputy Chief of the Iranian Army Brigadier General Muhammad Hussein Dadras said the main message of the exercise is the establishment of peace and security in the region without the need for foreign presence or intervention.
"The Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran regularly upgrades its equipment and holds specialized exercises and combat trainings in accordance with the threats posed by extra-regional countries and enemies,” he said.
"Despite the cruel sanctions of the sworn enemies of the Islamic establishment, the capabilities and perseverance of Iran’s youth have led us to reach a stage of self-sufficiency in the field of production of new equipment that can compete with those of the developed countries.”