Iran to stage massive military drill in September

The Iranian army will stage a large- scale military maneuver in late September, a senior Iranian commander said Saturday.

Quoted by Press TV, Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, commander of Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base, said the exercise, dubbed the Modafe'an-e Aseman-e Velayat 5 (Defenders of the Velayat Skies 5), will be larger than the previous one held in the eastern part of Iran last year.

Various long-range radars and passive defense systems will be tested during the drill, he was quoted as saying without elaboration on the area and scope of the exercise.

Modafe'an-e Aseman-e Velayat 4 military drill was held jointly by the country's army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps in November last year.

In the 2012 drill, an upgraded high-precision long-range S-200 ground-to-air defense system, and indigenous missile defense systems named Qader, Ya Zahra 3, Mersad 3 and Hog. were tested, according to Press TV.

Also, electronic and surveillance systems were used to detect manned and unmanned enemy aircraft flying at low altitude.


F-14 and F-4 fighter jets, shoulder-launched weapons, as well as Sayyad 40, a mobile electronic interception system, and Rassed 32, a smart surveillance system were also tested then.

The drill covered an area of 950,000 square kilometers in the provinces of Khorasan Razavi, North Khorasan, South Khorasan, Sistan-and-Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Kerman and parts of Fars and Yazd provinces.

Over the past few years, Iran has held several military drills to enhance the defense capabilities of the Armed Forces and to test modern military tactics and equipment.