Iran claimed it now has drones that can fire precision-strike missiles enhanced with artificial intelligence. The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said the regime successfully test-fired the weapons during the recent Payambar-e-A’azam, or Great Prophet, military exercises.
Video released to Iranian state media from the IRGC, reportedly from the exercise, shows an Iranian-made Ababil-5 unmanned aerial system armed with two different types of missiles, Qaim and Almas. Iran said both of the munitions are AI-enabled but didn’t offer any details on exactly how artificial intelligence is employed in the weapons.
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The IRGC navy commander said during the Great Prophet exercises, Ababil-5 and Mohajer-6 drones fired multiple AI-enabled missiles at simulated enemy targets.
Did Iran test anything else?
The IRGC also used the exercises to launch Navvab missiles for the first time from Shahid Soleimani patrol combat vessels. The Iranian navy also tested its latest explosive-laden kamikaze boat design.
The commander of the IRGC navy said the drills help safeguard national infrastructure, such as gas and petrochemical plants, nuclear power facilities and oil platforms and refineries.
Iran needs new defenses
Iran needs to develop new strategies to protect those sensitive targets because most, if not all, of the country’s air defenses were destroyed in 2024 during Israeli airstrikes.
The Israeli air force isn’t discussing it publicly, but the widely held belief in the intelligence community is that Israel used its F-35 stealth fighters to attack and destroy dozens of Iranian air defense systems.
If those systems and launchers, which were designed to stop jets, couldn’t stand up to Israeli assaults, it’s hard to imagine the launchers and drones featured during the Great Prophet exercises wouldn’t suffer a similar fate.
