"As of yesterday, following the announcement of the start of the 'Zolfaghar 99 Military drill', the Air Defense Force warned all foreign drones flying near the exercise site to leave the general area of Zolfaghar drill," said Shahram Irani, adding, "since then, we have been witnessing a noticeable change in the activities of American drones."

"With continuous naval patrols and monitor the general area of the exercise in the waters where the exercise takes place, the Air Force and Navy units of the Army, including P3F, F-27 aircraft and reconnaissance drones have warned the trans-regional units to leave the area of Zolfaghar drill," he added.

Stating that during the exercise they witnessed different and focused activities of American drones to collect information from the exercise area, Irani said, "These activities were discovered by the army's signal recognition systems, and the drones were warned by the air defense."

"They were forced to leave the area after seeing the level of readiness of the surveillance, identification and defense systems of Iran Army," he added.

The three-day exercises, dubbed Zolfaqar-99, kicked off on Thursday under the command of the Army’s Zolfaqar base, with observers from the Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base in attendance.

The drills cover an area of two million square kilometers in the eastern waters of the Strait of Hormuz, Makran coast, Oman Sea and North Ocean India up to 10 degrees north.

Units of the Army’s Air and Ground Forces will contribute to the maneuvers, during which tactical offensive and defensive strategies will be drilled in line with the country’s agenda to safeguard its territorial waters and maritime access routes.

During the military exercises, the Armed Forces will put to test different home-made defense systems, including drones, torpedoes, surface-to-surface and coast-to-sea cruise missiles, surface-to-air and air-to-surface missiles and rocket launchers loaded on vessels.