TEHRAN – The Iranian Army announced on Monday that plans to hold four major military exercises during the current Iranian calendar year which started on March 20.

Brigadier General Ahmadreza Pourdastan, commander of the Iranian Ground Forces, said the first of the four major drills will be held in June in the central province of Isfahan, the YJC reported on Monday.

He said 17 specialist-level war games are also on agenda for the current year, ranging in field from missiles to engineering, electronic communication, drones, rescue, etc.

*******New defense advancements will be unveiled soon

Turning to the Army’s new technological progresses, Pourdastan said on Wednesday the forces will unveil a newly made exploration vehicle named NRBC which is a moving laboratory for biological, nuclear, and chemical ammunitions.

“Also, retrofitted chieftain tanks will be added to the Army’s capacity” in the current Iranian calendar year, the commander added.

Among other technological military progresses to be unveiled, Brigadier General Pourdastan named the self-propelled 57mm-caliber air defense system, dubbed Bahman, and light and heavy armed vehicles.

********Army will react as the need arises

Referring to the deployment of Special Forces of the Iranian Ground Forces in Syria, the commander said, “We will react mightily as soon as the need arises and advisory missions are just examples of such situations.”

The Army’s presence in Syria in its advisory role is due to the new atmosphere intrinsic to proxy wars and it is a field mission to identify the threats, Pourdastan noted.
“Therefore, we dispatched a number of our staff to the war-torn region to experience the situation.”

On Iran’s purchasing of Russian weaponry, Pourdastan said T-90 tanks and Su-30 fighters are options and Iran seeks to benefit from the capabilities of different countries to shore up its defense capability.
“The country’s defense industry will unveil “Karar” tank in one month or two to be deployed by both the Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

AK/PA