Russia’s novel use of Iranian drones in Ukraine serves as classroom for Western militaries

Drones will play an outsized role in future military conflicts. The focus of this thread is intended to be on this issue. And, also, about military equipment produced by Iran more generally.

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2022-10-07/drones-ukraine-russia-iran-7606441.html

 

What do you think about the potential for using drones on crowds of unarmed, protesting women? Do you think drones could be programmed to tell the difference between women with covered & uncovered heads? Calculate hair length?

Asking for a friend.

 

Lets focus on non-politicized issues. There is a thread about the young women (and men) protesting the hijab rules. You can engage in your polemics there. The issues to focus on here are those touched on in the Stars and Stripe article I posted.

 

This is a Political Forum - says it in the name. Making ans selling weapons is an inherently poiltical activity. What you make, what you sell, who to and what you do with the weapons is all 'political'. If you just want to waffle on about weapons systems I'm sure there are wepons forums where no one wil lquestion the context of the posts.

Furthermore, Iran explicity luses its weapons programs, real and imaginary, for overtly political purposes. It uses its weapons as propaganda - such as relentlessly pushing information on the capabilities of Iranian weapons. The idea that posts echoing this propaganda are not 'politicized' because they hide behind gushing over weapons being used to murder Ukrainians is fooling no one. The purpose of these polemics are clear.

I want to find out about the political implications of drones in Iran - are they well suited to helping Iran's leaders murder their own people and therefore stay in power? Can these drones detect 'moral' and 'immoral' women? Can they tell if unmarried women are virgins? Can they be used to punish their 'immorality', or will the Mullahs still have to use hired thugs to do that?

These and other related questions are perfectly valid and no more 'politicized' than this thread or other related posts on Iranian weapons. I can't make you answer them, but I can keep asking.

 

What is there to say? Iran made lots of suicide drones, others have their own version of it, Iran decided to reveal its hand right now with Russia - I think its both a tactical and political mistake
But..It may be they had no other choice, running very low on allies.
Israel is out of the picture but America is all over this and that's more than enough

 

The surprise isn't that Iran has a drone fleet, but that Russia is actually buying them and using them. I wonder if this is with Iranian advisors training in their use? I don't just mean how to fly drones, but on how to best deploy and use them. It seems that Russia has learned zero lessons and altered their tactics not at all in this war except in this one area. I find that curious.

 

Not really. The main drone is made in extremely limited numbers, the open source says less than a dozen built total in Iran and Russia, maybe, got up to half. Two have been shot down and one was captured I tact and sent to the US so foreign made parts could be identified and sanctions put in place to block grey market access. So at most Russia has three left.

No, that is not a game changer. It is less capable than even a Turkish drone and the bigger western drones are far more capable and far more numerous.

 

With the way Russia has fought the war I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were using drones to hit apartment buildings and theatres. Going after enemy supplies? Novel indeed for them.

 

They have mostly been using theor artillery systems to attack static targets such as buildings. Mostly civilian buildings such as apartment blocks (which seems to be mostly what Soviets built post WW2). This is for two reasons: 1) Their old artillery isn't very accurate at their gun crews are so poorly trained unmoving targets which are not time sensitive is all they can hit (they can't respond fast enough to mobile Ukrainian artillery units which shoot and scoot in 5 minutes) and 2) Russia deliberately wants to depopulate the areas they are conquering of civilians as that means they do not have to feed or care for them plus that means there are few civilians to carry out unconventional warfare campaigns against them.

It is all highly illegal breaking both the Geneva and Hague Conventions but the dictator Putin doesn't care about little things like the laws of war or civilian populations.

 

Really?? lol

Besides the Shahed 139 (hundreds of which have been delivered to the Russians according to the US government), the other drone delivered and used in Russia is the Mohajer 6 (one of which was indeed captured intact to test nonsense and falsehoods about its components). Iran mass produces these drones and operates over 200 such drones in country. What's more, besides Russia and several nonstate actors, the Mohajer-6 is also in operation by several foreign states including Venezuela and Ethiopia. You have no clue what you are talking about. Nor would any "source" making such fantastic assertions!

above, picture of Mohajer 6 drones in just one of several underground bases in Iran.

https://www.military.africa/2021/08/ethiopia-operating-iranian-made-mohajer-6-drone/

Besides these 2 types, Iran literally has dozens of other types with thousands of combat drones in its arsenal.

 

@Iranian Monitor ...I keep seeing you posting about these gadgets.....you a salesman for this outfit or something?

Mate, I think you need a jingle or some kind of catchy tune to go with the post....like Bayraktar....

 

Russia changed the commander of the Russian forces in Ukraine. The new commander is a lot more capable and will probably help Russia do better on the battlefield. But while the Russians don't like to admit reliance on any foreign power, much less one like Iran with the propaganda image carefully crafted in people's minds, it was actually almost a decade ago when the Russians first approached Iran about drone technology. Due to the sanctions on Iran and the negative image about Iran, at the time they eventually opted to work with ironically the Israelis. A foolish decision since what they ended up with are UAVs heavily reliant on western components. What they needed (given the volatile nature of their relations with the West) was instead a country like Iran who had gone through sanctions and could help them produce these drones on their own.

In any case, this article touches on your points:
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/10/russias-use-iranian-drones-ukraine-hints-reliance-iran

 

Besides the Shahed-136 "suicide drones", which are relatively cheap and have been used extensively by the Russians so far, this Business Insider article cites US sources saying:

I have already talked about the Mohajer-6. The Shahed-129, by comparison, is a relatively large drone with quite a bit combat experience against ISIS and similar groups in Syria and Iraq.

The number of these drones in Iran's inventory are more limited (around 25-40) so I doubt can spare more than a handful to the Russians without compromising its own needs.

As for the Shahed-191, these are stealthy looking drones modeled around the US RQ-Sentinel brought down intact by Iran in 2011. They are not suicide drones but can fly from both runways as well as from the back of pick up trucks.


It is not clear how many of the RQ-Sentinel look-alike drones Iran has in its arsenal, but since at least a dozen were paraded recently by Iran in a drone show, I assume the number is close to the 50 Iran had planned to build.

 

Ithink there are lots of american "salesmen" on these forums trying to sell weapons.

 

If the mini Hijab revolution continues in Iran ( Inshallahh ) than i will not be surprised if the Ayatullas region will attack it's people with drones.

 

Looks like Russia has turned into a terrorist state so you should have an opportunity to sell lots of your drones there.

 

I have seen lots of posts on the 136 specifically.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Shahed_136

 

All it means is that Ukraine needs more air defense. That's nothing new, though.

 

Shahed-136 is a loitering drone ("suicide drone") which is designed to hit a target like a cruise missile. Iran has developed a launcher that stores and launches half a dozen in quick sequence. They are quite effective overall, although not very sophisticated and relatively cheap.

 

What is the big deal about Iran building a bunch of drones? It isn't like drones are some kind of revolutionary development.

 

Drones have already, and will more than before, revolutionize warfare and eventually replace all forms of manned combat aircraft.

 

No chance of that.

 

https://www.flightglobal.com/milita...ned-fighters-in-mid-2020s-usaf/136978.article
UAVs could start replacing manned fighters in mid-2020: USAF

 

I have already posted this elsewhere, but largely because of its drone, the US military itself recognizes it won't have air superiority in the Persian Gulf/ME region.
https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2022-07-21/iran-drone-qatar-6719888.html

 

That article is talking about a pretty limited scope, seeking a solution to issues of range while fighting over the Pacific.

I'm thinking a new jamming pod on a fighter could quickly render a hostile UAV useless.