The war in Ukraine is on its sixth month, and the Russian military is still looking for a breakthrough. With each passing day, the Russian campaign is losing more steam, while the Ukrainian forces —bolstered by U.S. and NATO weapons — are either comfortably defending or even launching counteroffensives.
The Russian military is getting outmatched in almost every category. So, it’s no surprise that Moscow is turning into its friends for help.
Iranian armed drones for Russia?
According to declassified intelligence, the U.S. assesses that Iran is preparing to send Russia several hundred unmanned aerial systems, some of which can carry munitions, within the next few weeks.
In a press briefing a few days ago, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the U.S. has intelligence that Tehran and Moscow are working on an agreement for the training of Russian forces on unmanned aerial systems. He added that the first training sessions are expected to start as early as this month. Sullivan couldn’t confirm whether Russia has already received any of the drones.
“Our information indicates that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs, on an expedited timeline. Our information further indicates that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these UAVs, with initial training sessions slated to begin as soon as early July. It is unclear whether Iran has delivered any of these UAVs to Russia already,” a National Security Council spokesperson said.
The White House even published satellite imagery of a drone demonstration on an Iranian military base at the same time as when the Russian officials were in Iran.
As of Tuesday, August 2, the Ukrainian military claims to have destroyed approximately 739 Russian tactical unmanned aerial systems.
Related: Watch: American HIMARS missiles destroy Russian-occupied bridge
Both sides have employed unmanned aerial systems of all sizes and capabilities in a variety of roles, including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), precision strike, and airborne artillery observer.
“Former Russian military commander and [military] blogger Igor Girkin stated that Ukrainian forces have successfully defended the Donetsk Oblast frontline due to the advantage of Ukrainian UAV capabilities in the area,” the Institute for the Study of Warfare stated.
Here it should be noted that Girkin, whose criticism of the Russian military and how it is fighting in Ukraine was recently quoted by the New York Times, is a convicted war criminal for his involvement in the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Donbas before the full-blown invasion by Russia. Girkin, moreover, was involved in the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17). The passenger plane was shot down by pro-separatists in July 2014. All passengers and crew, including 80 children, were killed in the incident. Girkin was charged in absentia by a Dutch court — the MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur — after an international investigation. Girkin, a former intelligence officer with the FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence service (with some foreign capabilities and tasks) and an equivalent to the FBI, has even claimed moral responsibility for the MH17 shootdown.
Related: Not Mission Impossible: Yes, Ukraine can win the war against Russia
Iranian drone program
Although it is not widely known, Iran has one of the oldest drone programs in the world. Iranian work on unmanned aerial vehicles first began back in the 1980s.
Today, the Iranian unmanned aerial systems program includes both aircraft with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and with strike capabilities; some of its drones are multirole.
According to the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, the Iranian drone program has eight main unmanned aerial systems. These are the Toufan, Shahed-129, Sadegh, Mohajer, Karrar, Hemaseh, Fotros, Ababil. Many of them have different versions.
Below is a short breakdown of the most important Iranian UAV platforms and their roles and capabilities:
Ababil
Ababil-2
Role: Multirole (ISR and combat capabilities)
Range: 120-200 km
Launch system: JATO launcher, truck-based pneumatic catapult, and ship-based launcher
Munitions: n/a
Related: Could China’s FH-95 electronic warfare drone disrupt US operations?
Ababil-3
Role: Multirole
Range: 100-250 km
Launch system: runway
Munitions: Almas-guided anti-tank missiles; Ghaem-guided glide bombs
Ababil-5
Role: Multirole
Range: 480 km
Launch system: runway
Munitions: Almas-guided anti-tank missiles; Ghaem-guided glide bombs
Fotros
Role: Multirole
Range: 1,700-4,000 km
Launch system: runway
Munitions: Almas-guided anti-tank missiles; Ghaem-guided glide bombs; Heydar-1/2 cruise missiles
Hemaseh
Role: Multirole
Range: 200 km
Launch system: runway
Munitions: Ghaem-guided glide bombs
Karrar
Role: Multirole
Range: 800-1,000 km
Launch system: pneumatic catapult
Munitions: Azarakhsh guided missiles; Balaban guided bombs; GBU-12 laser-guided general-purpose bombs; Kowsar medium-range guided anti-ship cruise missiles; Shafagh laser-guided missiles; Simorgh cluster bombs; Yasin long-range guided glide bombs; 500-pound laser-guided MK-82 bombs
Mohajer
Mohajer-2/2N
Role: ISR
Range: Mohajer-2: 31-50 km; Mohajer-2N: 150 km)
Launch system: pneumatic catapult
Munitions: possible capability to launch RPG-7s
Mohajer-4
Role: ISR
Range: 150 km
Launch system: pneumatic catapult
Munitions: Hyrda-70 air-to-surface unguided rockets
Mohajer-6
Role: Multirole
Range: 200-2,000 km
Launch system: runway
Munitions: Almas-guided anti-tank missiles; Ghaem-guided glide bombs
Sadegh
Role: Multirole
Range: 200 km
Launch system: pneumatic catapult
Munitions: Adapted Misagh air-to-air missiles
Shahed-129
Role: Multirole
Range: 1,700 km
Launch system: runway
Munition: Sadid-guided glide bombs
Toufan
Role: One-way kamikaze attack
Range: 100 km
Launch system: JATO launcher
Munitions: n/a
Feature Image: Arash loitering munitions / “suicide drones” on display at Iran’s National Army Day parade in Tehran. (Photo by Hossein Zohrevand/Tasnim News Agency via Wikimedia Commons)
Read more from Sandboxx News
- India tests its own stealth combat drone in an effort to boost its defense industry
- Switchblade drones: Giving Ukraine an edge on the battlefield
- The Air Force finds new use for its Global Hawk drones
- H-20: What we know about China’s stealth bomber
- America’s enemies can track stealth fighters on radar (and it isn’t a problem)
Leave a Reply