WSJ: Russia and Iran intend to produce 6000 drones annually in Tatarstan

Russia and Iran intend to build a joint plant for the production of combat drones, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing senior officials close to the United States. According to them, faster and longer-range versions of the Iranian Shahed-136 UAVs will be produced in Yelabuga.

The American edition notes that in early January a delegation from Iran visited the city in Tatarstan. The details of the launch of the project were discussed, in particular, a place for construction was chosen. The plant's capacity will be 6 kamikaze combat drones per year.



According to the WSJ, the Iranian delegation was represented by Brigadier General Abdollah Mehrabi, who heads the Air Force in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Gasem Damavandyan, the chief executive of the Iranian company Quds Aviation Industry, a key developer and manufacturer of combat drones in the country.

The Elabuga plant, the publication claims, will produce an upgraded version of the Shahed-136 drone. It will be equipped with a new engine that will allow the device to fly faster and farther. No timeline was given for the construction of the plant, but the WSJ says it will take "significant time." Sources of the publication also said that the construction of a plant for the production of drones is included in the deal between Russia and Iran for $1 billion.

At the end of 2022, the Russian Federation began to actively use Geran-2 kamikaze drones in the NVO zone. The US and its allies have claimed that the drone is a copy of Iran's Shahed-series UAV.

Earlier it became known that the fallen on January 26 in the Vinnitsa region due to technical malfunctioning Russian cruise missile is a new, previously unknown modification of the Kh-101 - a strategic air-to-ground weapon - using technologies to reduce radar visibility. After examining the surviving wreckage of the KR, American and Ukrainian experts found out that this version of the X-101 had a trap firing system and an optical trajectory correction system based on satellite images.