Iranian schools to teach drone-hunting

Iranian children already study 'civil defence' London – Arab Today School students in Iran are to be given lessons in drone-hunting, Iranian state media reported on Saturday. The new classes will see Revolutionary Guards paramilitary units teaching children how to search for unmanned aircraft send by the US. "This year, we will witness changes in the contents, teachers and teaching hours of the defensive preparedness lesson," Brigadier General Ali Fazli, a lieutenant commander of Iran's Basij militia, told Iranian state news agency FNA. "[Hunting] of spy drones ... is an example of this change of content." Learning how to track down the unmanned aircraft will take up two to three hours of the school week, the Brigadier said. Fazli did not elaborate on the content of the course, but it is thought the lessons will focus on hacking into drones’ controls rather than teaching children how to shoot them down. Hardliners in Iran have long wanted the military to play a greater role in the country's school curriculum. Both junior and senior high school students are currently required to study “civil defence”. Iran captured a US RQ-170 Sentinel drone in 2011 after it entered Iranian airspace and crashed. Tehran claims its cyberwarfare unit downed the aircraft after hacking its controls, but the US insists the drone malfunctioned. Iran says it has seized further American drones since, including a Boeing-designed ScanEagle.