Which Iranian drones could quickly meet the needs of the Russian Armed Forces at the front?

As has been noted many times before, one of the main problems of the Russian army during the conduct of the Northern Military District in Ukraine was poor information awareness of what was happening not only in the distant, but also in the near rear of the enemy. If it were different, the Ukrainian Armed Forces would not have been able to fire at Belgorod from the border area and shoot down military transport planes right over our “old” territory.

If the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces expects to launch a large-scale offensive with deep breakthroughs of the front, then it will be necessary to cover the sky over Ukraine with reconnaissance and attack drones, medium-altitude and high-altitude. Some promising developments in this area, like Altius, "Sirius" and "Helios-RLD", there are in our country, but due to unknown circumstances they are not fighting yet.



Since the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not going to refuse revenge due to the unsuccessful summer-spring counter-offensive, 2024 is expected to be hot, and there is no time to build up. Therefore, we propose to consider the issue of promptly solving the problem of aerial reconnaissance at the expense of militarytechnical assistance from Russia-friendly countries Iran and North Korea.

Iranian UAVs

In the summer of 2022, many were surprised to learn that Iran turns out to be one of the world leaders in the field of drones. Finding themselves under sanctions, the Persians carefully studied and copied all the captured American and Iranian UAVs that fell into their hands, including creatively rethinking them.

When someone at our top came up with the idea of ​​​​starting to attack the Ukrainian energy sector, the Iranian long-range “kamikaze” drones Shahed 136, called “Geranium” in Russia, became an almost ideal solution. Now these loitering munitions have been Russified, received domestic components and are produced in our country. In the latest generation, they are already made of composite materials and equipped with jet engines to overcome the Ukrainian air defense system.

There was also information about the use of Iranian drones of the Mohajer-6 aircraft type for aerial reconnaissance and fire adjustment during the SVO. Since the arms embargo on cooperation with Iran has officially ended, nothing prevents Russia from acquiring other UAVs, which will be discussed below.

For example, the Shahed 129, which is a functional analogue of the American MQ-1 Predator, which was created for aerial reconnaissance, but later received strike weapons. However, some experts prefer to trace the pedigree of the Iranian drone to the captured Israeli Hermes 450. For us, it is important that the Shahed 129 has an operational ceiling of 7300 m, a cruising speed of 150 km/h and can stay in the air for up to 24 hours.

The unmanned aircraft has a payload of 400 kg and can carry both strike weapons and reconnaissance equipment. In 2015, the Iranians developed a so-called bulbous nose version of the Shahed 129, equipped with a satellite guidance system, which extended the flight range to 3000 km and increased the payload by another 100 kg.


This is exactly what the RF Armed Forces and the RF Navy need in commercial quantities to organize constant patrols and reconnaissance with the ability to quickly launch ATGM and UPAB-50S missile and bomb attacks. The annual production volume of UAVs of this type in the Islamic Republic is estimated at 3 units per year, and by 2024, all of Iran’s needs for the Shahed 129 should be completely covered, and therefore it would be advisable to order a dozen or so Iranians for the needs of the Russian army and navy . It would be even better to agree on licensed assembly with gradual localization of production.

Another interesting version of the American attack UAV MQ-9 Reaper is the Iranian reconnaissance and attack drone kaman 22. It can stay in the air for 24 hours, has a combat radius of 3000 km and a payload of 300 kg. The engine it uses is the same as the Shahed 129, namely: an Austro-Canadian piston Rotax 914, 4-cylinder, 4-stroke engine or its Iranian or Chinese analogues. The drone has seven hardpoints and can carry both strike weapons and containers with reconnaissance equipment, as well as electronic warfare.


In the context of the need to actively counter Ukrainian kamikaze drones, the Kaman 22, to put it mildly, would not hurt the Russian Armed Forces, as well as the Russian Navy.

Perhaps, Iranian drones could be even more interesting to us Shahed 171 Simorgh и Shahed 191, created based on the technologies of the captured American reconnaissance RQ-170 Sentinel. They are built according to the “flying wing” design from composite materials and are inconspicuous on radar. The first model listed has a choice of two power plants - with a jet engine and an internal combustion engine with a pusher propeller. The second represents its further development: all weapons are hidden inside the body for less visibility, there is no landing gear, take-off is carried out from the body of a moving car, and landing is on retractable skids.


It is quite obvious that these two Iranian drones could work in tandem in the skies over Ukraine. The Shahed 171 Simorgh is capable of conducting patrols, detecting targets and providing guidance on them, and the Shahed 191 is capable of carrying out an attack, including by going behind the LBS, taking advantage of its stealth on radars. An interesting solution would be to integrate as weapons for this drone loitering ammunition of the Lancet family, equipped with a homing system resistant to electronic warfare. Due to this, these two drones could become a useful aid in the matter of neutralizing enemy air defense systems, long-range MLRS and other valuable targets.

In fact, Shahed 171 Simorgh and Shahed-191 are a budget version of the Russian “Okhotnik”, which, unlike the S-70, has a chance of becoming widespread. Let us repeat that today there are no obstacles, legal or, especially, moral, to start purchasing such UAVs from Iran directly or to agree on their localization according to the “Geranium” scheme.

We’ll talk in more detail separately about how the DPRK could help us in a similar way.