Iran is building decentralized drone warfare in the basements of Tehran apartment complexes, powered by cheap technology from China, a leading defense expert has warned.
Draganflies Cameron Chell also said that this emerging system – focused on first-person-view (FPV) drones – could pose a threat not only to the entire Middle East, but potentially to the American homeland itself.
“So whether it’s the Iranian military, whether it’s militias or Iranian patriots, they can all make or purchase their own FPVs and take offensive action,” Chell said.
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Smoke rises after an Iranian drone was intercepted over the Bahrain Financial Harbor towers, which houses the Israeli embassy, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Manama, Bahrain, March 6, 2026. Photo taken with a mobile phone. (Stringer/Reuters)
He added that “Iran could iterate on FPVs and release more than 100,000 per month over time.”
“Iran has militias or sleeper cells in the United States that, in my opinion, can already build this equipment,” Chell clarified.
Chell’s warning comes at a time when recent incidents in Iraq highlight the increasing use of FPVs.
At Baghdad International Airport, Iranian-backed militias operating under the umbrella of the ‘Iraqi Islamic Resistance’ have launched multiple FPV drone strikes.
Footage released in March 2026 reportedly shows an FPV drone striking a US UH-60M or HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter, while another strike successfully hit a US AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar unit at the same base.
“FPVs are a central core issue, and Iran is building these themselves, on the basis that they’re going to bring in parts from China and they’re going to get the parts through some pretty porous borders, so it’s very difficult to stop that,” Chell said.
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A drone view of the site of an Iranian missile attack on a residential building, after Iran launched missile strikes following US and Israeli attacks in Tel Aviv (REUTERS/Row Kastro)
He warned that Iran’s strategy mirrors what has already happened in Ukraine, where decentralized drone production has flourished.
“There will be, or already is, an underground industry for the production of FPVs and drones that will or will swell in Iran, just as we saw it emerge in Ukraine,” he explained.
“This is going to happen in people’s homes in Iran, in people’s basements, in the basements of apartment buildings, where they can build makeshift assembly lines.”
“I am convinced that China and Russia are shipping parts to support the development of drone assembly or production capacity – which is a de facto decentralized cottage industry,” he warned.
Concerns extend beyond overseas battlefields, as around 1,500 Iranians were intercepted at the US border during the Biden administration.
Officials warn that the unknown number who evaded detection raises fears of potential ‘sleeper cells’.
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Iranian drone swarms threaten US military assets in the Middle East region (Iranian military/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/handout via REUTERS)
President Trump acknowledged the issue on 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 have eyes on them all, 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, as well as the U.S. homeland,” Chell said.
“We might even want to call it terrorist attacks, using FPVs against their neighbors and pretty much anywhere in the world,” he added.
“It’s a matter of when we’ll see FPV attacks, probably in swarms, probably sophisticated, on U.S. soil.”
“Within the next eight months, the Iranians will have advanced drone systems that can counter certain RF/radio frequency interference and will use tactics such as swarming or spoofing,” he warned.
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“It will be very, very difficult for the US to destroy these small drone factories in the basements of apartment buildings where citizens help out. Cutting the supply chains will also be difficult.”
“The main sticking point for the Iranians is establishing supply chains from China to have sufficient supply to create precision mass capacity and/or consistent, asymmetric capacity,” Chell said before stating that if this happens, “the war between Iran and the US will only become much longer.”
