Despite high expectations, the Iranian UAV appears to have disappointed the Russian military, according to US intelligence.
The information that the Russian Army purchased UAVs to attack Iran really made the West very worried, this topic “heated up” newspapers in the US and Europe during the past time.
Despite the fact that neither Russia nor Iran have made an official statement, however, US military officials repeatedly assert that the delivery of Tehran’s attack drones to Moscow has taken place.
One such document, citing unnamed sources from US intelligence agencies, was published in the New York Times (NYT), according to which the first batch of attack drones from Iran was delivered to Russia.
After referring to intelligence data and several statements by unnamed officials, the author of the article in the New York Times confirmed that Russian cargo planes with the first batch of UAVs left Tehran on 19/02. 8.
According to intelligence from the US and its allies, Russia has received two types of drones from Iran, both of which can carry guided weapons and are used to attack armored vehicles and radar stations. of the Ukrainian Army.
However, there is very remarkable information that has been released, that is, the Russian Army after the evaluation process was not satisfied with the UAVs received, they did not give the expected performance results.
“There are some errors in the operating system of the Iranian-made UAV, which makes the Russians feel very unhappy,” the NYT quoted an unnamed representative of the US intelligence agency as saying.
Earlier, it was reported that Iran and Russia had reached an agreement to supply up to 1,000 Shahed 129 and Shahed 191 drones made by Tehran in exchange for the delivery of Su-35 fighters, which were formerly devoted to Egypt.
The Kyiv government claims that the Russian Army used attack drones purchased from Iran over the Donbass battlefield, but no concrete evidence has been given so far.
Russia has about 1,500-2,000 reconnaissance UAVs, but it lacks armed UAVs that can carry out precision strikes on targets deep in enemy territory. Meanwhile, Ukraine has used Turkish-made UAVs very effectively since the beginning of the war.
In this situation, Russia’s attention to Iranian UAVs is understandable, especially when Western experts assess that Iran has demonstrated its ability to conduct airstrikes with a swarm of UAVs aimed at a single target.
They argue that Russia wants to increase domestic production of armed UAVs, but is facing difficulties because Western sanctions and export restrictions have caused the country to lack the semiconductor chips needed to produce the said combat vehicle.
“Russia has a high demand for semiconductor chips and if they can buy UAVs that are made entirely in Iran, they don’t need to use precious black market components to build UAVs,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, president of the private organization. Silverado Policy Accelerator consultant based in the US.
It is currently unclear if the Iranian UAV testing process really does not give the desired results, and whether Russia will pursue a large-scale purchase, or will stop at the newly received prototypes.
