U.S. and Israel Establish Interagency Ties to Combat Growing Iranian Drone Threat

(New York, N.Y.) – Senior national security and intelligence officials representing the U.S. and Israel have agreed to establish an interagency working group to strengthen security and intelligence coordination for combatting the regional threat posed by Iran’s drone and missile programs. With technological weaponry advancements and increased government funding to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s military drone program is a critical component in its growing footprint around the Middle East. Tehran and its proxies are using drones with increasing frequency to confront the U.S. and its allies.

On April 20, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) issued a report confirming Iran’s drone program was a “growing destabilizing threat,” providing a detailed assessment of how “Iran’s ballistic-missile systems are intended not only for deterrence, but for battle, including by Iran’s regional partners.” A day later, on April 21, Iranian state-run PressTV vividly proved the point by airing a chilling video taken from an IRGC drone flying above a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf, plus “kamikaze” drone footage. While the U.S. Navy indicated this footage was at least seven years old, Iran’s drone warfare capabilities have expanded considerably in the interim.

In recent years, Iran has used drones to harass U.S. air carriers, threaten freedom of navigation in international waters, gain a military advantage in the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts, and breach Israeli and Saudi airspace.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) tracks Iran’s drone threat and maintains a resource, The Iranian Drone Threat, chronicling the capabilities of the Iranian regime’s drone program over time, Iran’s use of drones in the region and the regime’s provision of drones and drone technology to its terrorist proxies. UANI is also increasing its vigilance to confront businesses profiting and supporting the Iranian drone threat. In March and April 2021, UANI contacted Taiwanese telecommunications company ATEN International and ATEN Technology, Inc., based in Irvine, CA, asking about ATEN brand technologies apparently in use by Iranian military intelligence during drone exercises. ATEN has yet to respond to the inquiries.

To read UANI’s resource, The Iranian Drone Threat, please click here.

###