Publish Date: 17 March 2013 - 23:31

A senior Iranian commander says border guards have begun testing unmanned aerial vehicles (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,” Border Guard Commander Brigadier General Hossein Zolfaqari said on Sunday.

He added that upon the completion of the pilot project, Iranian border guards will use UAVs to patrol borders.

On Tuesday, Iran’s police teamed up with the Border Guard Command to counter narcotics, human trafficking, and gasoline smugglers on the Iran-Afghan border in southeastern Iran.

Iran has a 900-kilometer border with Afghanistan and has frequently been used as the main conduit for the smuggling of Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.

On December 17, 2012, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said Iran had launched the production line of ScanEagle drones, adding that the IRGC Naval and Aerospace Division was employing the UAVs.
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