The efficiency and affordability of Iran’s combat drones have reshaped the regional military balance and challenged Western air superiority, a senior adviser to the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Aerospace Force said on Tuesday.
Brigadier General Ali Belali, a veteran of Iran’s missile program, said the country’s unmanned aerial systems have become a “strategic game-changer” built upon decades of domestic innovation since the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Speaking at a ceremony in Tehran, he said Iran’s early artillery units formed during the war “became the foundation for our missile and later our drone capabilities.”
Belali traced the evolution of Iran’s missile and drone programs to the efforts of the late General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, regarded as the architect of Iran’s missile industry.
“He believed everything should be indigenous,” Belali said. “This approach to self-reliance has become the cornerstone of our defense strategy.”
He said Iran’s early efforts began with reverse-engineering Soviet-made systems such as the Scud and Frog-7, before moving to locally produced missiles capable of precision strikes.
“We built what we could not buy,” Belali said, recalling that the first missiles were fired from western Iran with limited range and accuracy. “Today, precision and range speak for themselves.”
“During the war (in the 80s), our first drone carried barely a liter of fuel and flew for 15 minutes. Today, our systems have challenged even America’s air dominance,” he said. “Their production cost and performance have upended every equation.”
Reports by the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times have said Iranian-designed Shahed drones, mass-produced in Russia, have been used in large-scale attacks on Ukraine, overwhelming air defenses with low-cost precision swarms.
Defense analysts say the Shahed’s simple design and low unit cost – estimated at $35,000 to $60,000 each, compared with hundreds of thousands for Western equivalents – have driven global efforts to produce cheaper unmanned systems.
Belali said such technologies have “shifted the balance” not only through deterrence but also by reducing dependency on costly conventional weapons.
“Our progress came from necessity, faith, and engineering under pressure,” he said. “The world has now recognized the impact of that path.”
Western governments have imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on Iranian drone manufacturers and procurement networks, accusing Tehran of supplying drones to Russia and regional armed groups.
Iran has denied direct involvement in combat operations abroad, saying its technology serves defensive purposes.
