Iran launches air defense drills near key nuclear sites

The drills are focused on protecting critical infrastructure, including the Fordow and Khondab installations, which house uranium enrichment and heavy water production facilities.

The exercise, led by the Army's Air Defense Force under the command of the country's integrated air defense network, simulates defending critical sites and mission centers against aerial and missile attacks using a wide range of units and equipment, including missile systems, radar, electronic warfare and intelligence units, according to IRNA.

The drills follow a previous phase of nationwide exercises that began earlier in January in the air defense zone surrounding the Natanz nuclear facility in central Iran against mock attacks by missiles and drones, as reported by state media.

During that phase, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) air forces conducted "an all-out point defense of the Natanz site against a multitude of air threats in tough electronic warfare conditions.”

In October, US President Joe Biden's adviser for the Middle East Amos Hochstein told Fox News that Israeli air strikes earlier in the month knocked out Iran's last three Russian-provided S-300 air defense missile systems.

The surface-to-air S-300s were the last in the Islamic Republic's arsenal after one was destroyed in an attack in April. Hochstein said, "Iran is essentially naked."

According to IRGC spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini, the exercises, which will continue in various parts of Iran until mid-March, are a response to what he called new security threats.

Naini added that about 30 land, air and maritime drills have commenced across six western and southern provinces so far. “The number of drills has almost doubled this year compared to last year, in response to the evolving threat landscape.”

He added that several branches of the IRGC, including the navy and the paramilitary Basij forces, will also participate in the drills.

Iran has been conducting military exercises as it prepares for heightened tensions with its arch-enemy, Israel and the United States, under incoming President Donald Trump.

The war games come amid concerns that Trump could empower Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike Iran's nuclear sites while intensifying US sanctions on Iran's oil industry under his so-called "maximum pressure" policy.

On Friday, the Aerospace Force of IRGC unveiled what state TV called an underground missile city being visited by Guards Commander-in-Chief Major General Hossein Salami and the Aerospace chief Amir-Ali Hajizadeh.

The base was used in the Iranian missile attacks against Israel in what the Islamic Republic codenamed operations True Promise 1 and 2 in April and October 2024, IRGC media Tasnim said.

Salami said that Iran has more missiles than it can store, dismissing what he called enemy propaganda about the weakening of Iran's armed forces following attacks by Israel on Iran and its allies.

Iran has recently suffered setbacks in Lebanon after Israeli attacks against Iranian-backed Hezbollah and the toppling of Tehran's ally President Bashar al-Assad in Syria last month.

Iranian officials keep downplaying Iran's setbacks, but an Iranian general, Behrouz Esbati, who was reportedly based in Syria, said in a speech circulated on social media that Iran had lost badly in Syria.