Iran to teach drone-hunting to school students

AP: An Iranian newspaper is reporting that the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guards paramilitary units plan to teach drone-hunting to school students. Iranian hardliners have long sought a larger role for the military in the country’s education system.
The Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian newspaper is reporting that the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guards paramilitary units plan to teach drone-hunting to school students.

The Monday report by pro-reform Etemad daily quotes Gen. Ali Fazli, acting commander of the Guard’s Basij militia, as saying the new program will be taught as part of a “Defensive Readiness” lesson in high schools.

The report did not elaborate.

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

Iran captured a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone in 2011 after it entered Iranian airspace. Since then, Tehran says it has seized more U.S. drones, including a Boeing-designed ScanEagle.