“We are in the process of signing contracts with the manufacturing companies to use UAS for protecting the country’s borders,” Commander of the Iranian Border Guards Units General Hossein Zolfaqari told reporters last week.
General Zolfaqari also pointed to the abducted Iranian border guard who is in custody of Pakistan-based Jeish al-Adl terrorist group, and said that although the terrorist group has claimed that it has executed Jamshid Danayeefar, “we have sufficient evident to prove that he is still alive”.
Danayeefar was among the five Iranian border guards who were abducted by Jeish Al-Adl terrorist group in Iran’s Southeastern Sistan and Balouchestan province earlier this year. Four of them were released after two months, while the group had claimed a week earlier that it had executed Danayeefar.
Iranian officials have repeatedly stressed that they would not accept the allegation until they see corroborative evidence.
Jeish Al-Adl has done a number of terrorist operations in the province in the last several months. The group is based in Pakistan and escapes to the country each time it conducts an operations in Iran.
To have a better monitoring and control over the borders, Iranian border guard forces have announced that they plan to make use of various technological tools and equipment to better fight such terrorist actions.
In March 2013, General Zolfaqari announced Iranian border guards have begun testing UAVs for patrolling the country’s Eastern borders.
“The implementation of this project has begun in South Khorasan and Sistan and Baluchestan Provinces, and multiple daily flights are conducted to evaluate the performance of the drones,” Zolfaqari said.
He added that upon the completion of the pilot project, Iranian border guards will use UAVs to patrol borders.
In April 2014, General Zolfaqari said that Iran plans to modernize its borders monitoring system.
“Border monitoring system will be deployed in border regions after the parliament allocates the needed budget,” General Zolfaqari told reporters on the sidelines of Eqtedar (Might) 3 border guards exercises in the Western province of Kermanshah.
He noted that border monitoring systems will help better control border conditions and movements, and “through the online observation of the borders, the border checkpoints will be notified in case of having a weakness (in their performance).”
General Zolfaqari also added that once the monitoring systems are stationed, electronic watch towers will be set up along the borders as well.
Earlier in the day, Zolfaqari said that his forces have tested new weapons and reconnaissance balloons in their four-day-long exercises in the Western parts of the country.
“We have used the new weapons in different scenarios and in various time frames,” General Zolfaqari told reporters.
He pointed to using two reconnaissance balloons in the drills, and said, “The balloons took photos from the entire region in a bid to study all the movements in drill zone.”
He reiterated that all possible scenarios were considered and the weapons were used in different face-to-face combat situations during the drills.
Source: Fars News Agency