Iran’s drone army was built to compensate for its loss of aerial strength in order to counter Israel’s air superiority. Senior Israeli officials have admitted that the drones are challenging the country’s air defenses in terms of identifying and intercepting them. Iran has been launching drones and other unmanned aerial systems at Israel since 2018 and the increase in Tehran’s efforts has placed the threats such systems pose in the top five problems facing the Israel Air Force. Last year Israeli F-35s downed two Iranian Shahed-197 drones that were heading toward the Jewish state. The drones, Downed outside of Israel’s borders, the drones were collected by the armed forces of a regional country and delivered to Israel for further inspection.
