TEHRAN - Iran’s Armed Forces have launched a large-scale military exercise featuring the domestically-developed air defense missile systems, radars, electronic warfare devices, communication systems and an integrated air defense network.

The exercise, started on Tuesday morning, covers two-thirds of the Iranian airspace.

The aerial maneuvers by air defense divisions of the Army and the IRGC kicked off in the country’s northwestern, western and central areas, Press TV reported.

Second Brigadier General Amir Farajpour said the deployment of air defense systems, with special significance given to their mobility and agility, was carried out at the first stage of the drill.

The measures were taken in accordance with the principles of passive defense in order to deceive the mock enemy, Farajpour explained.

Also, secure and multi-layered communication was established among defense systems, command and control centers, and the country’s integrated air defense network in order to adopt proper decisions in case of a threat.

Farajpour added manned and unmanned aircraft from the Army and the IRGC conducted reconnaissance sorties over the area, before detection and combat systems carried out tactical and defensive operations against the mock enemy aircraft.

The military official noted that control and command centers are using active and passive radar systems capable of signal and electro-optical monitoring of the exercise area, and missile air defense systems will use artificial intelligence and decision-making techniques as they discover a hostile target to launch an appropriate attack.

Farajpour underlined that the entire detection, reconnaissance, interception and missile systems that the Army and IRGC air defense units are employing are homegrown.

“Formation of secure layers of air defense in order to protect the Islamic Republic of Iran’s airspace, besides comprehensive defense of critical centers of the country are among the objectives of the exercise. Air defense units and operational forces of the Army and the IRGC are skillfully and intelligently undertaking the tasks round the clock under the operational auspices and control of the country’s joint air defense base,” he stated.