Iran’s ‘basement’ Chinese drone networks raise concerns about sleeper cell attacks on US soil.

(SeaPRwire) –   A top defense analyst has cautioned that Iran is developing a distributed drone warfare capacity within the basements of Tehran apartment blocks, utilizing low-cost Chinese technology.

Cameron Chell of Draganfly noted this nascent framework—focused on first-person-view (FPV) drones—might endanger not just the Middle East but also potentially the continental United States.

“The FPV drones represent Iran’s desperate long-shot weapon since they are extremely challenging to counter, highly potent, and can be deployed without a centralized control structure,” Chell informed Digital.

“Therefore, be it the formal Iranian military, affiliated militias, or nationalist actors, they can each manufacture or acquire their own FPV drones and launch assaults.”

He further stated that “Iran could be mass-producing FPV drones, eventually manufacturing over 100,000 per month.”

“Iran has militia elements or sleeper cells within the United States that, in my assessment, already possess the ability to assemble this hardware,” Chell specified.

This alert coincides with recent events in Iraq underscoring the escalating employment of FPV drones.

Under the banner of the “Iraqi Islamic Resistance,” Iran-supported militias have executed several FPV drone strikes at Baghdad International Airport.

Video disseminated in March 2026 purportedly depicts an FPV drone hitting a U.S. UH-60M or HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter, with a separate strike successfully damaging a U.S. AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar system at that location.

“FPV drones are a fundamental focus, and Iran is constructing these domestically, likely sourcing components from China via relatively unsecured borders. This makes it exceptionally hard to intercept,” Chell remarked.

He cautioned that Iran’s approach reflects developments in Ukraine, where distributed drone production has expanded rapidly.

“An underground sector for FPV and drone manufacturing will, or already does, exist and is growing within Iran, precisely as we witnessed in Ukraine,” he elaborated.

“This activity will occur in Iranian residences, in basements, and the basements of apartment complexes, where improvised production lines can be set up.

“I believe China and Russia are supplying parts to aid in developing drone assembly or manufacturing capacity, effectively creating a decentralized cottage industry.”

Apprehensions reach beyond foreign conflicts, as approximately 1,500 Iranian nationals were apprehended at the U.S. border under the Biden administration.

Authorities express alarm that an undetermined number who avoided capture could indicate potential “sleeper cells.”

On March 11, President Trump recognized the situation, stating, “Many people entered under Biden with his foolish open border policy, but we know where most are located: We are monitoring all of them, I believe.”

“This marks the start of an asymmetric capability that Iran will employ against neighboring states and U.S. interests in the area, and also against the U.S. mainland,” Chell stated.

“We might even term it terrorist attacks, using FPV drones against their neighbors and virtually any global location.

“It is a question of when we witness FPV attacks, likely swarming and likely advanced, on American territory.”

“In the coming eight months, Iran will possess advanced drone systems capable of overcoming certain RF/radio frequency jamming. They will begin employing tactics such as swarming or spoofing,” he warned.

“It will be enormously difficult for the U.S. to eliminate these small-scale drone workshops in apartment basements where civilians may assist. Severing supply lines will also prove challenging.

“The key bottleneck for Iran is securing supply chains from China to amass sufficient resources for a precise, mass-scale capability and/or a sustained, widespread asymmetric threat,” Chell said, adding that should this occur, “the conflict between Iran and the U.S. simply becomes far more protracted.”