The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force has praised the use of homegrown technologies and young cadres in air defense drills this week.

General Amirali Hajizadeh was quoted by Fars news as saying that almost all radar and other equipment used in the drills on Tuesday and Wednesday were made in Iran, while 15 years ago “we were not in this situation”.

Hajizadeh explained that one purpose of the drills was to test newly trained cadres who must learn the nature of teamwork in air defense operations. He added that for the first time Iran used cruise missiles and winged munitions fired from aircraft to keep them under radar surveillance. He claimed that all incoming threats were neutralized.

On Tuesday, Brigadier General Ghader Rahimzadeh, commander of the joint air defenses headquarters (Army & IRGC) said the drills aimed to evaluate the impact of possible electronic warfare of an adversary on Iran’s air defense radars. He added that the exercise was successful in identifying targets in an “environment of electronic warfare.” He added that locally manufactured electronic warfare equipment is being used in this exercise. On Tuesday, jamming drones were used to test anti-aircraft interception systems and the stable operation of radars.