Iranian drones... low costs and great effectiveness in battles

With the rise of Western voices accusing Tehran of providing Moscow with hundreds of drones, especially during its war in Ukraine, some types of these Iranian drones are attracting attention, as they were able to make a difference on the ground with their low cost compared to other Western weapons and missiles.

We learn about the most important of them in this report:

Last September, Ukraine announced that it had managed, for the first time, to shoot down an Iranian-made Shahed-136 drone in the Kharkiv region, which was used by Russian forces.

This came a few weeks after US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan revealed Russia's intention to buy hundreds of Iranian combat drones for use in Ukraine.

Tehran officially denied that it had any intention to sell drones to Russia, and said that what it handed over to Moscow was before the war on Ukraine.

What is remarkable is that the interest in these drones comes due to their long flight capabilities and the diversity of their purposes between surveillance, military reconnaissance, attack with fire ammunition, or collision with the target and explosion.

The most prominent of these is the "Shahid-136" or "kamikaze" small drone, which weighs about 200 kilograms and is considered cheap, with a value ranging from 20 to 50 thousand dollars compared - for example - to the cost of the Russian Caliber missiles or the American Tomahawk.

The Shahed-136 drone, 20-50 thousand dollars

Caliber             

Tomahawk missile $2 million

These marches are launched in the form of swarms, and because they are slow and cannot fly at high altitudes, a large number of them are intercepted, but the penetration of one or two marches of about 40 kilograms is sufficient to cause great destruction.

As for the other drone that Iran is believed to have sold to Russia, it is the "Muhajir 6", which is used in surveillance, reconnaissance, imaging and attack missions, and Iran began producing it in 2018.

This aircraft weighs about 600 kilograms, and is able to stay in the air for 12 hours, with a range of more than two thousand kilometers.

This drone is equipped with a thermal and optical camera and carries 4 accurate smart bombs. It is similar in terms of function and size to the Turkish "Bayraktar TB-2" drone.

What may reflect Tehran's interest in this industry is the opening of a factory for the production of "Ababil-2" reconnaissance drones in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, last May.