An Iranian newspaper is reporting that the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guards paramilitary units plan to teach drone-hunting to school students.
The report by pro-reform Etemad daily on Monday quotes Gen Ali Fazli, acting commander of the Guard’s Basij militia, saying the new programme will be taught as part of a “Defensive Readiness” lesson in high schools.
The report did not elaborate. Iranian hardliners have long sought a larger role for the military in the country’s education system.
Students of both junior and senior high schools currently take courses focusing on “civil defence.”
Iran captured a US RQ-170 Sentinel drone in 2011 after it entered Iranian airspace. Since then, Tehran says it has seized more US drones, including a Boeing-designed ScanEagle.