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On January 8, 2021, Channel 1 (Iran) aired a report on the "Zolfaghar" UAV Drill. The report showcased Iran's drone arsenal, including drones that can drop armor penetrating bombs. An officer explained that the drones are covered with "radar-absorbent paint" to avoid detection by the Americans. Suicide drones and drones used for electronic warfare were also displayed. An officer with Iran's armed forces who accompanied the reporter said that Iran's UAVs sends a message to the enemy that "no place in the world is beyond our reach." The officer added that if Iran Is attacked, the retaliation would be more than 1,000 kilometers away from Iran's territory. All that will be left for the enemy to do, he explained, will be "to watch with a dropped jaw." The documentary featured a suicide drone exploding on the ground, having crossed 1,400 kilometers from where it took off, according to an Iranian officer.
Narrator: "This is what an order given by the beloved [leader] means. This is what 'fire at will' means. The days of 'hit and run' are over. This is what it means when a missile is turned into [Ali bin Abu Taleb's sword] Zolfaghar."
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Speaker: "We have quadcopters and multirotors that can fly vertically. They are used as bombers.
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"They can carry three to eight bombs. Another capability is that they can follow and hit moving targets. This is an example of a bomb, general...It can easily penetrate armor. Here, you have an example of birds that dealt with nano drones. They operate as suicide drones. They follow the bird at a high speed of 100-200 kilometers [per hour]."
Kioumars Heydari, Commander of Army Ground Forces: "So as soon as it tracks the target, it flies towards it at high speed and rams into it. They carry explosives."
Officer 1: "We have been working on radar-absorbent paint. We tested it on small drones, so that the drone will be able to fly over American warships without being detected, and even if it is detected, they will not be able to track it."
Officer 2: "This is the Arash UAV, which was designed and built by the Air Defense Force. Currently, it has a range of 2,000 kilometers. It is used both by the navy and the ground forces. We also use it as a target. One of its systems is the DRFM, which can create false targets. Recently, GPS Null and video navigation auxiliary systems were installed in it as well. I can guarantee you that it can reach any place in the Middle East that interests you with no GPS signal.
"It is also resistant to electronic warfare. If it enters a certain country in order to hit a target, either they will have to use a missile that costs several millions of dollars against it, or it will hit the target. In the Zolfaghar drill, we conducted scramble operations with it. Scramble operations are a unique and exclusive initiative of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
IRGC General Mohammad Bagheri: "So you turned the Karrar [UAV] into a scrambler."
Officer 2: 'It was equipped with a machine gun that can fire a warning shot. It is also equipped with an Azarakhsh missile. Hopefully, we will be able to see today the firing of the missile. This will be our first firing [of the missile] and we hope it will go well. The Majid missile has also been prepared for it.
"Our subsystems were planned for it. We are talking about different missiles, laser-guided bombs, and [electro]-optical bombs. It flies at an altitude of 18,000 feet. It has flight endurance of over 12 hours."
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Narrator: "They want to recreate a real war zone, with different types of Iranian-made UAVs. Kaman, Arash, Kian, Karrar, Simorgh, Ababil, Mohajer, Pelican, Yasir, Sadegh, and Hazem – all of these belong to a family of UAVs targeting each and every enemy base. It is in the range of fire, even though it is far away. This fist is just waiting for the order. 'Where?' He asked, 'in Haifa and Tel Aviv?' In the maps, you see it just being Deir Ezzor.
"Here, the inspection of the honor guard is different. The fighters in this ceremony are the achievements of anonymous scientists. These fighters are called UAVs. Each one of them is a nightmare for the enemy. More than 200 operational UAVs of all types are here – combat drones, drones for protection and detection, electronic warfare drones, and suicide drones, with short to long flight ranges."
Officer 3: "These are some of the Arash birds, that have a range of 2,000 kilometers, safe communication link, 100% stealth capability, radar-distortion system, and radar-detection system."
Interviewer: "What is their message to the enemy?"
Officer 3: "No place in the world is beyond our reach."
Interviewer: "Do the [enemies] threaten us without knowing our capabilities?"
Officer 3: "On the contrary. They are aware of them and this is why they make threats."
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Interviewer: "How calm should our people be?"
Officer 3: "With regard to the possibility that our country will be attacked and we will be unable to respond – they can be rest assured that this will not happen. First of all, as the Leader said, nobody will attack us, due to the power of deterrence that we have managed to create. All these [drones] constitute a power of deterrence. The power of deterrence that we have managed to create will get the idea to attack us out of everybody's heads. It already has. This has been proven to us.
"But if one day, some lunatic perpetrates some devilish act, it won't even get to the point where people [in Iran] will have to close their shops for 24 hours and stay in their homes. Rest assured that we will prevent this. According to our plan, we will respond at least 1,000 kilometers away from our border. This is where we will stop the enemy."
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Narrator: "What a journey we have joined! A journey to the land of lovers – the lovers whose hands and thoughts have turned Islamic Iran so powerful that they now claim that every inch in the enemy's territory is within their range of fire. Woe to whoever makes a mistake! Each of these achievements – or rather, fighters in battle – has its own role and expertise, and all that is left for the enemy to do is watch with a dropped jaw.
"These are the fruits that grew from the creative minds of our committed youth: Destroying targets in midair with air-to-air missiles, destroying targets on the ground with precision missiles, long-range UAVs with vertical flight capability, whose nest is a navy vessel, destroying sensitive and vital targets deep in enemy territory, constant monitoring of the borders in air, land, and sea. These are the roles of these Iranian fighters. Some of them came from the shores of Makran, 1,400 kilometers away."
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