Iranian Schools May Soon Teach “Drone Hunting”
The details of the new high school curriculum remain elusive, but the plan was likely inspired by the drones being deployed to the Middle East these days
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Iran is modernizing its high school curriculum by adding an edgy new subject: drone-hunting. According to Iran’s militia commander, General Ali Fazli, the controversial subject falls under the heading of “Defensive Readiness,” Wired UK reports:
While it may seem strange to teach school kids how to hunt drones, put in the wider context of tension between Iran and the US, and the widespread use of military drones by the US, it begins to make some sort of perverse sense.
Iran has had some success at drone-spotting in the past, the Guardian says, even without the use of teenagers.
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.
The details of the new high school curriculum, announced in an Iranian newspaper, aren’t clear. While Iran takes steps to rid its skies of drones, the United Nations has asked the U.S. and Israel to justify legally their use of armed drones in Pakistan, Yemen and Gaza, Global News reports. And UK drones may have breached international law in Afghanistan, says the Guardian.
More from Smithsonian.com:
This Drone Can Fit in Your Palm
Imagining a Drone-Proof City in the Age of Surveillance
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