Russia May Order 2,000 More Iranian-Built Attack Drones

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) Thousands more Iranian drones may be headed to Ukraine for Russian forces who continue to use them to attack armored vehicles, air defenses, troop concentrations and weapons such as mobile artillery.

Dones

A Senior Pentagon official did not confirm that indeed as many as 2,000 more Shahed 136 drones were headed from Iran to support the Russian effort, but certainly made it clear that such an initiative would by no means be surprising. The Iranian “kamikaze” drones are described as a loitering munition autonomous swarm pusher-prop aerial drone which bring the advantage of being expendable and attack from long ranges as far at 2,500km.

“We do know that Iran has provided Russia with drones for use on the battlefield in Ukraine. While I don’t have anything specific to provide in terms of potential future deliveries, it would not — we would not be surprised were that the case,” a Pentagon official told reporters, according to a transcript.

Related Video Above: Rep. Rob Wittman (VA) sits down for an exclusive interview with Warrior Maven’s, Kris Osborn

These kinds of weapons present a serious threat to Ukrainian forces as they can be quite difficult to defend for a number of key reasons. On the simple notion of numbers, large numbers of swarming drone-explosives would be quite difficult to target with any kind of kinetic interceptor given the built in redundancy. Drones like this are lower altitude and can be organically attached to and launched from dismounted units in closer proximity. Ukrainian air defenses, for example, could be overwhelmed, smothered or exploded by these kinds of “kamikaze” type of attack drones. 

It also appears that these kinds of Iranian drones could conduct ISR missions as well and send back location details of Ukrainian forces to Russian invaders. Weapons of this kind could make Ukrainian armored vehicles, formations or artillery systems vulnerable to closer-in attacks.