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The Iranian Drone Threat in Syria
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Farzin Nadimi - One of the confirmed Iranian fatalities in the airstrike in Syria was Col. Mehdi Dehghan Yazdeli, a commander from the IRGC Aerospace Force's very active and heavily defended Shahid Karimi UAV base south of Tehran. The IRGC has been flying Shahed-129s, Mohajers, and other UAVs over Syria for some time. Iranian drones have a maximum range of 1,000 to 1,500 km., so launching them out of the T-4 base offers obvious range advantages, especially for long-endurance missions aimed at Israel. Over the past few days, Iranian drones have been particularly active over Homs province, which may have prompted the April 9 strike. Israel is no doubt concerned that the T-4 base is only 220 km. from the Golan Heights, making it much easier for Iranian drones to maintain round-the-clock surveillance of that frontier and beyond. Tehran will likely maintain or even expand its UAV presence in western Syria going forward. To help these assets withstand damage from strikes, the IRGC might deploy some of its mobile air-defense assets to T-4, which risks further escalation if they too are targeted by Israel. The writer is an associate fellow with The Washington Institute.