Gen Ali Fazli, acting commander of the Basij militia, told the Fars news agency the new programme would be taught as part of a “Defensive Readiness” lesson in high schools from late September.

Fars News is the mouthpiece of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the military force charged with defending Iran’s national security.

The national civil defence training manual would be changed to incorporate the drone threat, which Iran claims emanates from the United States.

“This year, we will witness changes in the contents, teachers and teaching hours of the defensive preparedness lesson,” he said.

Gen Ali suggested students could be taught how to track and bring down drone aircraft by hacking their computer systems.

Iranian hardliners have long sought a larger role for the military in the country’s education system. Students at both junior and senior high schools currently take courses focusing on “civil defence.”

Iran captured a U. RQ-170 Sentinel drone in 2011 after it entered Iranian airspace.

“The IRGC’s electronic warfare systems detected signals showing that alien drones were trying to enter the country (airspace),” officials said following an alleged drone capture earlier this year.

Since then, Tehran says it has seized more U.S. drones, including a Boeing-designed ScanEagle.

Other Iranian officials have claimed that Iran’s efforts to combat drones have paid off.

“Perhaps some time ago there were some drones which sought to enter the country and they were hunted down or a number of drones came close to the country’s borders and then receded, but at present they are not seen and the enemy is afraid of sending drones to Iran. This shows that the country’s eastern and northeastern borders have been reinvigorated so well those flights have severely decreased, but we are still vigilant,” said Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli, a senior IRGC official.

VIA- The Telegraph