TEHRAN — Iran’s acting defense minister said on Wednesday that domestic innovation and indigenous technology has neutralized the technological advantages of its adversaries during the country’s recent war, adding that the experience demonstrates the effectiveness of relying on local scientific and industrial capabilities.
Speaking at a meeting with the heads of the Defense Ministry’s industrial organizations, Brigadier General Majid Ebnolreza said the recent war showed that “the strategy of relying on domestic capabilities, innovation and indigenous technology has not only strengthened the Islamic Republic of Iran’s deterrent power, but has also turned the country’s defense industry into a driver of technological advancement on the battlefield.”
His remarks come after the recent terrorist U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, during which all sides employed advanced missiles, drones and electronic warfare capabilities, underscoring the growing role of unmanned systems, cyber operations and electronic warfare in modern military confrontations.
Referring to a message from new Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, Ebnolreza said the “resolute resistance of the Iranian nation” has contributed to “the decline of
 America’s position in the region and the weakening of the Zionist regime.”
The acting defense minister said Iran’s adversaries unleashed the war using “the most advanced military technologies, the broadest electronic warfare capabilities and the support of a network of major global technology companies.”
“However, specialists in the defense industry of the Islamic Republic of Iran, relying on indigenous knowledge and the capabilities of the country’s experts, neutralized this superiority and changed the equations of the battlefield,” he said.
Ebnolreza described electronic warfare as one of the defining features of the war.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran demonstrated that even against the world’s most sophisticated technologies, it can neutralize the enemy’s technological superiority by relying on domestic capabilities, innovation and the scientific expertise of its specialists,” he said.
He said that modern warfare is increasingly determined by the integration rather than the individual performance of technologies.
“The battlefield today is a battlefield of integrated technologies, not a competition among independent technologies,” Ebnolreza said. “No single technology is decisive on its own. Real power is created through the synergy and intelligent integration of technologies.”
He said air, land, sea, space, cyber and electronic warfare capabilities now function as parts of a unified operational system, with battlefield success depending on their combined application.
Ebnolreza also said the pace of technological change has accelerated sharply, reducing the lifespan of military technologies and intensifying global competition.
“The secret to overcoming the technological gap lies in continuous innovation, combining existing technologies and transforming them into new operational capabilities, rather than merely acquiring a specific technology,” he said.
Pointing to developments in unmanned aerial systems, he said advances in drones reflect an approach based on combining different technologies, responding rapidly to battlefield requirements and converting new ideas into operational military capabilities.
“Today, the defense industry of the Islamic Republic of Iran faces a diverse range of drone threats and emerging aerial technologies, and has developed corresponding technologies and operational responses for every level of threat,” Ebnolreza said.
“The experience of the recent war showed that the more the enemy increased the complexity of its technologies, the more Iran’s indigenous capabilities advanced accordingly, turning the battlefield into a platform for the country’s defense technological leap.”
Ebnolreza called for the creation of a national bank of defense innovations, saying innovation should be “problem-oriented” and driven by the operational needs of the armed forces.
“The gap between identifying an operational need and designing, producing and deploying a solution must be reduced to the minimum,” he said.
He added that Iran’s defense innovation system should be organized around the armed forces’ evolving requirements, defense foresight and changes on the battlefield while making greater use of knowledge-based companies and scientific elites.
“Iran does not suffer from a shortage of innovation,” Ebnolreza said. “What we need today is the intelligent management of the country’s scientific capacities, connecting talented experts to the real challenges of the battlefield and transforming ideas into operational technologies.”
He said Iran’s future defense capabilities would be built on “problem-oriented innovation, the intelligent integration of technologies and a rapid response to the evolving needs of the battlefield.”