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Iran is reportedly developing a decentralized drone warfare system, utilizing the basements of apartment buildings in Tehran, according to a prominent defense expert. This initiative is said to rely heavily on affordable technology sourced from China.
Cameron Chell, from Draganfly, has expressed concerns that this burgeoning system, which focuses on first-person-view (FPV) drones, could pose significant threats not only throughout the Middle East but also to the United States.
“FPVs are Iran’s strategic advantage due to their difficulty to defend against, their remarkable effectiveness, and their ability to operate without a centralized command,” Chell explained in an interview with Fox News Digital.
He elaborated that the Iranian military, various militia groups, and even Iranian citizens could potentially create or acquire these FPV drones to carry out offensive operations.
In a recent incident underscoring these concerns, smoke was seen rising after an Iranian drone was intercepted over the Bahrain Financial Harbour towers. This location, which houses the Israeli embassy, became a focal point during the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran in Manama, Bahrain, on March 6, 2026.
He added that “Iran could be reiterating FPVs and churning out more than 100,000 a month over time.”
“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.”