The flow of drones between Tehran and Moscow has reversed, after years of Iran supplying weapons for the war in Ukraine, with Russia now thought to be delivering weapons for use in the Middle East.
Russia is shipping deliveries of complete battlefield drones to its ally Iran, in a bid to keep the country afloat as it attempts to withstand the concentrated fire of the United States and Israel. Iran long supplied bulk quantities of Shahed-type kamikaze bomb drones to Russia for the Ukraine War, which Moscow began to produce itself with design improvements based on their battlefield experiences.
Perhaps the most important upgrade to the drone by Russia was improvements to its anti-jamming capabilities, to prevent it being sent off-course by satellite navigation jamming or spoofing. If these upgraded drones are what is being sent back to Iran, it could mean a material improvement in their ability to wage war on the Middle East.
Britain’s Financial Times reports the drone deliveries is the first time Russia is known to have sent lethal aid to Iran over the course of the near-month old war, citing their claims on two unnamed “officials briefed on the intelligence”.
Also reported was the claim that these alleged Western intelligence sources believe that Iran had requested deliveries of advanced Russian air defence missiles, but that Moscow had turned them down out of concern of drawing them into direct conflict with the United States. A key feature of the Iran War so far has been the conspicuous failure of Iran’s air defence systems to deny its skies to American warplanes.
While Iranian propaganda has made constant claims and the United States has lost a handful of aircraft — generally because of friendly fire or accidents, Washington says — the simple fact is America has been able to operate thousands of sorties in Iran’s skies unmolested. The prominent use of much older, non-stealth aircraft like the B-52 bomber and A-10 air support jet and use of stand-in or short range ordinance underlines the degree to which Iran’s mix of indigenous and Chinese-designed air defence missiles have failed.
Russia has previously stated it was delivering food and medical aid to Iran, but has played down the notion of weapons transfers calling it “fake” news. Russia has also been called out for providing intelligence to Iran, helping it target its strikes with greater accuracy. U.S. President Donald Trump moved to cool tensions around this, observing that “in fairness” Russia believes America does exactly the same thing for Ukraine.
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