TEHRAN - Iran’s caretaker defense minister said on Saturday that the production of various types of domestically developed unmanned aerial vehicles recorded a threefold increase amid US-Israeli aggression.

“At a meeting with members of the Parliament’s Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy, I emphasized that the recent onslaught revealed that Iranian elites, coupled with investment in cutting-edge technologies, constitute the most important pillar of the country's defense might,” Brigadier General Majid Ibn al-Reza wrote on social media. 

“Not only did the production of defense equipment continue uninterrupted in the midst of the war, but our drone production capacity also grew threefold,” the caretaker defense minister said. 

Ibn Reza reiterated the Armed Forces’ full preparedness and their continued efforts to boost Iran’s defense and deterrence capabilities.

The United States and Israel launched their second unprovoked war of aggression against Iran on February 28, initiating the conflict with the cowardly assassination of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, along with several high-ranking military commanders. Far from crippling the nation, this psychological warfare backfired, prompting a swift and crushing response from the Iranian Armed Forces, which executed 100 waves of highly calibrated counterattacks during 39 days of war. These devastating retaliatory strikes targeted vulnerable US and Israeli military assets across the region, inflicting severe tactical damage and dismantling Western illusions of invincibility. Having suffered a definitive strategic defeat on the battlefield, a desperate Washington was forced to seek diplomacy.