Ukraine: Russia’s growing use of Iranian UAVs shows dependence on Tehran

The equipment problems of Russian troops with “domestically manufactured drones” leave the Russian military mostly to handle Iranian drones reports Al Monitor in an analysis.

The use of Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by Russian forces in Ukraine has ceased to be taboo in Russian society.

Officials continue to call reports of Iranian drone deliveries to Russia “fake news,” but the Russian press writes about it freely and without hesitation, despite existing laws that prohibit the dissemination of information about the military that contradicts official reports. .

Moreover, even the Russian Ministry of Defense – an agency whose representatives unhesitatingly call any major military retreat a “restructuring” – has begun to recognize problems in equipping troops with Russian drones. Thus, at the end of September, Colonel Igor Isuk, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, stated directly that most Russian UAVs they do not meet the tactical and technical requirements.

According to the country’s media reports, the Russian military is using Iranian UAVs to strike targets both on the front line and deep inside Ukrainian territory at a range of several tens of kilometers. However, according to the Russian military themselves that Al-Monitor spoke to, expectations that kamikaze drones Shahed-136 will be used en masse against mobile Ukrainian artillery brigades with US HIMARS artillery rocket systems and M777 howitzers and French CAESAR not yet implemented.

The lack of precision guided weapons, restrictions on the operation of attack aircraft in the operational depths of the defense of Ukraine and problems with the quality and quantity of technical reconnaissance equipment force the Russian military to use Iranian UAVs mainly as a replacement for cruise missiles and tactical missiles for strikes against static targets that do not require reconnaissance. In particular, it is known that Shahed-136 munitions together with “Russian kamikaze drones” Lancet-3 were used to hit an air defense command post, a fuel storage facility in Otsakiv and the headquarters of the Southern operational command in Odesa.

Overall, the Ukrainian war not only highlighted many problems within the Russian military, which at the time of the invasion of Ukraine relied heavily on the experience of the campaign in Syria, but also led Russian generals and officers into relations with the Iranians, from the charge of instructors to the category of trainees. Due to the huge and, above all, unplanned consumption of ammunition, the Russian military is also interested in replenish its reserves with shells and bullets of various calibers, mass-produced in Iranian factories.

It is possible that Russia will attempt to correct its position, and present its current dependence on Iran as a temporary necessity. For example, Moscow could offer Tehran joint programs to modernize existing drone models, pointing out weaknesses such as low speed, which, logically, should be corrected. But also here the Kremlin is apt to fall into a trap. If Russian imports of Iranian UAVs do not bother Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Israel much, nevertheless the joint Russian-Iranian modernization of drones, based on the experience of a large-scale rather than a local conflict, will be painfully felt, even and if we take into account the limited industrial capabilities of Russian enterprises specializing in the production of UAVs.

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