Iran jets carry out ‘successful’ large-scale exercise
Fighter planes hit mock enemy targets in drill aimed to boost air force skills

Iranian fighter jets carried out Sunday a series of successful strikes on several fixed and mobile targets in the second day of a large-scale aerial exercise in the country’s central region, according to the Islamic Republic’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The mock enemy positions were hit with laser-guided and electro-optical bombs, Tasnim reported. The operations were carried out over an area of 400,000 square kilometers (about 99,000,000 acres), according to the news agency.
Iranian Air Force Brigadier General Alireza Barkhor on Friday said the objective of the drill was to boost the skills of the air force commanders, conduct operations in simulated combat zone, test defense achievements and display “the combat might of the Iranian Armed Forces,” according to the Fars news agency.
Israel’s Channel 10 reported Tuesday that Iran has bolstered defenses at its nuclear facilities, introduced new radar systems, and “raised its alert” for fear of an Israeli attack. The regime has also being carrying out a series of drills and exercises, including testing anti-aircraft missiles above its Bushehr reactor, the report said.
“The Air Force, alongside other Iranian Armed Forces, is tasked with defending and protecting the country’s airspace, but it has the message of security, stability, friendship and peace for the regional countries,” the report quoted Barkhor as saying.
A senior Air Force commander announced in August that Iran had “attained self-sufficiency in overhauling military aircraft,” despite the international sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, Fars said.
“Thank God and thanks to the Iranian Air Force experts and engineers, we have become self-sufficient in airplane overhauling, pilot training and many other fields,” Iranian Air Force Brigadier General Mehdi Hadiyan claimed at the time, the report said.