“hundreds of meters underground”: Iran shows underground drone base

“hundreds of meters underground”
Iran reveals underground drone base

May 29, 2022, 2:12 pm

Iran says it has more than a hundred “combat, reconnaissance and attack drones” stationed in a secret base. Now state television shows footage of the plant. The base is said to be hundreds of meters underground.

Iran says it has an underground air force base for drones. Iranian state television showed footage of the base for the first time on Saturday: more than a hundred “combat, reconnaissance and attack drones” are stationed at the base under the Sagros Mountains in the country’s west.

State television reported on visits to the underground facility by Iranian Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri and Army Chief Abdulrahim Mousavi. The exact location of the drone base was not mentioned. The reporter said he took off by helicopter for about 40 minutes blindfolded from the city of Kermanshah. The base is “several hundred meters underground,” Mousavi said. According to state television, the drone fleet is headed by the “Command-22”, a missile-armed drone that can fly at least 2,000 kilometres. As drones are increasingly used in the region, Iran must remain vigilant and keep its equipment up to date, Bagheri said in a speech to commanders and engineers present, according to Iran International.

The US and Israel have accused Iran of supplying drones to their Middle East allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, the government of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards drone program in October. Washington accused elite force behind drone attacks on an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia and a merchant ship off the coast of Oman in September 2019 that killed two crew members. Iran denied the allegations.