The chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the country’s homegrown unmanned aerial vehicles, which are equipped with artificial intelligence, can intercept and destroy hostile naval targets sailing thousands of miles away.
Major General Hossein Salami made the remarks on Wednesday as he addressed a conference of medical students in the capital Tehran.
“We have developed a capability that enables our drones to strike any part of a vessel that we want while it is cruising at a distance of thousands of miles away with the help of artificial intelligence,” he underscored.
“Even we determine the extent of destruction,” he added.
The top-brass commander also noted that the incorporation of pinpoint accuracy into ballistic missiles is a very complicated process, stating that Iran is among the three countries that exclusively possess such technical know-how.
Last month, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri said the scope of foreign demand for sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles developed and manufactured indigenously by the country’s military specialists is much larger than its production capacity.
Iran was once under arms embargoes on the purchase of foreign-made weapons, but now the Islamic Republic is faced with bans on the export of its domestically developed military products, Baqeri said on September 18.
“Today, the (number of) customers of our drones are several times more than our production capacity,” Major General Baqeri said, adding that “major world powers” are vying to purchase Iranian weapons.
Iran has turned into a “big drone power” that is outperforming major world powers, the commander said.
