Officials in the United States announced that they had obtained the body of a Russian suicide drone of Iranian origin that had been shot down by Ukraine in order to research how to deal with it.
Two unidentified US officials indicated on October 20 that the structural and technological information gleaned from examining the wreckage of Russian suicide drones could aid the US and Ukraine in determining how to better deal with them before they reach their targets.
According to them, the same procedure was utilised to develop the weaponry used by Middle Eastern troops supported by Iran. The US and Ukraine think that Russia attacked Ukraine with suicide drones made in Iran. Russia and Iran, meanwhile, have consistently refuted this information.
Recently, Russia has increased the number of times it raids Kiev, the country’s capital, and other Ukrainian cities using the Geran-2 suicide drone, whose size and look are claimed to be identical to those of the Iranian Shahed-136.
Since September 13, Ukraine claimed to have shot down 220 suicide drones, the majority of which had the phrase Geran-2 on their tails.
On October 20, the White House said that Iran had sent advisors to a region of Ukraine under Russian control to train Russian military to utilise suicide drones. According to a Pentagon spokesperson, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Russian military operated the suicide drone “with assistance from Iranian military personnel.”
Radar and other types of sensors are challenging to identify before the Shahed series UAVs reach the target due to their size, ability to fly very low, and appearance of having few metal components. Studying the Shahed family’s ruins or a comparable model could aid the US in overcoming this obstacle.
Russian suicide drone reportedly took off from three military facilities on the Crimean peninsula and one in Belarus, according to a Ukrainian official. Another difficulty for Ukraine is where Russian suicide UAVs are taking off since they are too far from the High Mobility Rocket Artillery System (HIMARS) strike range, making it impossible to shoot down the UAV prior to takeoff.
The employment of suicide drones and missiles by Russian forces to assault Ukrainian “military command infrastructure, energy and storage of foreign weapons, ammunition and military supplies” has recently escalated. The UAVs in question, according to Russia, were all self-built.
The raids destroyed up to 30% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, obliging the government to take remedial action and urge citizens to save electricity.
Up to 30% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was destroyed during the attacks, requiring the government to take emergency measures and urge people to save electricity.
On October 20, the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions against three Iranian officials and a group allegedly responsible for supplying UAVs to Russia for use in its raids on Ukraine. The same day, the British government imposed sanctions on three Iranian generals and a company for providing arms to Russia.
