Russia seeks to buy 20,000 new kamikaze drones from Iran
People in Yemen or Afghanistan know the sound well. It is similar to the sound of a lawnmower, for example. But unlike this nondescript machine, it instils fear. This menacing sound, which precedes the arrival of a drone, is now commonplace in Ukraine. Dozens of types of unmanned combat aircraft fly overhead. They are usually of Russian, American, Chinese or Turkish manufacture. Two of the latest sighted are Iranian-made, the Shahed-136 and the Mohajer-6.
Russia purchased a batch of weapons from Iran in July to shore up its area defence against the emboldened Ukrainian army. The package included unquantified units of Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6, kamikaze drones that explode on impact with a target. Russian troops have been using them in recent weeks in Kiev against civilian targets and elsewhere in the country against the Ukrainian power grid.
Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenski said on Monday that the Kremlin had asked Tehran to buy another 2,000 Shahed-136 kamikaze drones, renamed Geran 2 by the Russians. This is information from Ukrainian intelligence, which identified this type of low-cost drone on the battlefield at the beginning of August. Each unit costs around 20,000 euros, making it one of the cheapest on the market.
Equipped with a triangular wing and a warhead of more than 35 kilos, a relatively small payload compared to other types of drone, the Shahed-136 has a range of 2,400 kilometres, so it can operate well beyond the front line. It has the ability to fly over the area until it locks on to a target and once it hits, it detonates. It is accurate and can be devastating, but has major flaws that can make it vulnerable to conventional air defences. It flies slowly, at low altitude and is excessively noisy.
Before acquiring Iranian drones, the Russian military had deployed at least a dozen home-grown unmanned combat aircraft in Ukraine, such as the Orlan-10 or the Kartograf, according to Conflict Armament Research, a UK-based military research organisation. None have proven to be up to the task, as military analyst Federico Borsari points out in The European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR).
The Shahed-136 is a more common type of drone in the war, like the US Phoenix Ghost or the Turkish Bayraktar TB2, supplied to the Ukrainian army. The differentiating factor in this case is that this weaponry has been sold to the Kremlin by the Iranian regime, which shares with its Russian ally the goal of weakening the West. Although its leaders have so far denied any involvement in the invasion.
Iran has been sending drones to Russia since August and will most likely continue to do so if sanctions are not effective. Not only that, but the Ayatollahs' regime has indirectly participated in the war by sending military trainers to Crimea. Members of the Revolutionary Guards are instructing soldiers in the use of the Shahed-136 after suffering a series of "operator and system failures".
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby revealed. "Either they were not being flown properly and correctly, and were not hitting the targets, or the systems themselves were experiencing failures and not performing to the standards that the customers apparently expected," he told a press conference.
The US also fears that Russia is acquiring Iranian short-range Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles. US intelligence believes that the Persian arms industry is preparing the shipment, according to The Washington Post. At the press briefing, Kirby outlined this approach, but did not elaborate. The spokesman also expressed the position of the White House, which is prepared to impose new sanctions against Iran, as it has already done together with the European Union and the United Kingdom.
Tehran flatly denies having sent weapons and trainers to the Russian army, as does the Kremlin. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said last week that Iran was "firmly opposed to war" and to sending military weapons "to any side", and called on Ukrainian officials to provide evidence of Iranian drone use in Ukraine.
For his part, the Ukrainian president blamed Israel's inaction for encouraging Russia's partnership with Iran. "This partnership simply would not have happened if your politicians had made only one decision at the time: the one we asked for," Zelenski stressed, referring to Kiev's requests for the delivery of Israeli military technology. Neither Bennett, first, nor Lapid, later, have stepped forward.
