Iran is reportedly developing a decentralized drone warfare capability within the basements of apartment buildings in Tehran, utilizing cost-effective technology sourced from China, according to a prominent defense expert.
Cameron Chell from Draganfly has highlighted that this new system, focused on first-person-view (FPV) drones, could pose a significant threat not only throughout the Middle East but also potentially to the United States.
“FPV drones represent Iran’s strategic gamble as they are difficult to defend against, highly effective, and can be deployed without the need for centralized command,” Chell explained to Fox News Digital.
He further elaborated, “Whether it’s the Iranian military, militia groups, or patriotic individuals, all can manufacture or acquire their own FPVs for offensive operations.”
Smoke billows following the interception of an Iranian drone over the Bahrain Financial Harbour towers, which house the Israeli embassy, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Manama, Bahrain, on March 6, 2026. (Stringer/Reuters)
Chell also noted that Iran might be iterating on FPV drone designs and could eventually produce over 100,000 units each month.
“Iran’s got either militias or sleeper cells in the states who can, in my estimation, already build this equipment,” Chell clarified.
Chell’s warning comes as recent incidents in Iraq highlight the growing use of FPVs.
At Baghdad International Airport, Iranian-backed militias operating under the “Iraqi Islamic Resistance” umbrella have launched multiple FPV drone attacks.
Footage released in March 2026 allegedly shows an FPV drone striking a U.S. UH-60M or HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter, while another attack successfully hit a U.S. AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar unit at the same base.
“FPVs are a central core theme, and Iran is building these itself, suspecting they’re pulling parts in from China and getting the parts through some pretty porous borders. So, it is very difficult to stop that,” Chell said.
A drone view of the site of an Iranian missile strike on a residential building after Iran launched missile barrages following attacks by the U.S. and Israel in Tel Aviv (Reuters/Roei Kastro)
He warned that Iran’s strategy mirrors what has already occurred in Ukraine, where decentralized drone manufacturing has flourished.
“There will be, or already is, an underground industry for FPV and drone manufacturing, which will or is swelling up inside Iran, the exact same way that we saw it swell up inside Ukraine,” he explained.
“This is going to be happening in people’s homes in Iran, people’s basements, the basements of apartment blocks, where they can construct makeshift assembly lines.
“I am confident China and Russia are shipping in parts to help support the development of drone assembly or manufacturing capability, which is a de facto decentralized cottage industry.”
Concerns extend beyond overseas battlefields as about 1,500 Iranians were intercepted at the U.S. border during the Biden administration.
Officials warn the unknown number who evaded detection raises fears of potential “sleeper cells.”
Iran drone swarms threaten U.S. military assets in Middle East region (Iranian Army/WANA/Handout via Reuters)
President Trump acknowledged the issue March 11, saying, “A lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border, but we know where most of them are: We’ve got our eye on all of them, I think.”
“It is the beginning of an asymmetric capability that the Iranians will use against their neighbors and U.S. assets in the region, but also the U.S. homeland,” Chell said.
“We may even want to call it terrorist attacks, using FPV’s against their neighbors and practically anywhere in the world.
“It’s a matter of when we see FPV attacks, probably swarm, probably sophisticated, on U.S. soil.”
“Within the next eight months, the Iranians are going to have sophisticated drone systems that can defeat some RF/radio frequency jamming. They will start to use tactics like swarming or spoofing,” he warned.
“It will be very, very difficult for the U.S. to take out these little drone factories in the basements of apartment blocks where civilians help. Cutting supply chains will also be difficult.
“The primary choke point for the Iranians is to establish supply chains from China to have enough supply to constitute precision mass capability and/or consistent, pervasive asymmetric capability,” Chell said before stating that, if this happens, “the war between Iran and the U.S. just gets a lot longer.”
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