Confirmed: Russia doesn’t make enough UAVs, buys hundreds from Iran
WASHINGTON — Iranian drones enter service with the Russian armed forces. It is a question of buying and selling between Moscow and Tehran. According to Washington, the training of the Russian military personnel who will operate the Iranian drones will begin in the coming days.
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“The Iranian government is preparing to deliver to Russia several hundred UAVs, including unmanned aerial vehicles capable of carrying weapons, on an accelerated schedule,” said Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser. According to US intelligence, a plan has been drawn up between Russia and Iran to implement accelerated deliveries, whereby the new Iranian drones will temporarily strengthen Russian capabilities in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles.
The purchase of Iranian drones means that the Russian Federation is experiencing difficulties in the pace of its own production. It is a fact that the Ukrainian armed forces have had success against Russian drones, but economic sanctions and lack of materials and components are the main reason for the Russian shortage.
What will Russia get?
However, which drones Iran will send at the moment, the intelligence in open sources, as well as the American military intelligence, do not report.
Tehran has a wide range of unmanned vehicles in its armed forces. These are, for example, large Karra drones armed with air-to-ground missiles or Kian-type bombs, or circulating munitions. The popular Mohajer-2N and the larger Mohajer-6, as well as the Ababil-5 and Kaman-12 machines, were used for reconnaissance missions. Pelican-2 vertical take-off unmanned aerial vehicles are also in use, as well as various quadcopters, including those adapted for dropping warheads and kamikaze variants.
Russian-Iranian cooperation
BulgarianMilitary.com reminds you that the heavy defense industry is also seriously affected by the economic sanctions of the West against Russia due to the invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine on February 24 of this year. Missing parts, components, and imports of Western materials, including chips. The largest tank factory UralVagonZavod has not produced new models of tanks for years, and during the war it received burned tanks daily, refusing to repair them. Russia was forced to send the “museum” T-62 tanks to Ukraine from Syria and Libya.
Iran is the logical partner at the moment, which can supply the drones requested by Russia. Despite an arms embargo until two years ago, Iran has been buying weapons from the Russian Federation in recent decades, thus cementing friendly relations with the Russians. BulgarianMilitary.com recalls that Iran has repeatedly received help from Russia for its operations in Syria, mostly using the services of the radar systems at the Russian Khmeinin base.
Russia tests the Iranian SAM in Ukraine
As we reported in April this year, the British Guardian claims that through Iranian arms smuggling networks, Tehran is supplying Moscow with RPGs, Brazilian missiles, and the Iranian-made Bavar 373 anti-aircraft missile system. The Guardian cites information from regional intelligence services, including Iraqi militias. Iran’s Bavar 373 air defense system is based on the Russian S-300. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and many years of arms embargoes in the West, Tehran has found an ally and friend in Moscow.
According to the technical data and characteristics provided, the Bavar-373 is an air-to-ground missile system with a long-range. The system has two missile silos, each loaded with the Iranian Sayyad-4 missile, which flies approximately 27 km. height and has a range of about 300 km. According to Iranian experts, the missile system serves not only to intercept aircraft but also to destroy ballistic missiles.
From the information provided, it is clear that the entire anti-aircraft missile system is built and propelled by an 8×8 truck, with the missile silos mounted in the rear axle of the vehicle.
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