Iranian combat drones see thumbs down from Russia after early performance

Moscow unhappy with the early performance of advanced attack and stealth UAVs reports Washington Post; delivery said marred by serious technical failures in early tests.

Iran has reportedly delivered the first shipment of its locally-made combat drones to Russia for use by troops in the country’s ongoing war on neighbouring Ukraine, according to US officials, The Times of Israel reports.

Russian cargo planes picked up the first batch of drones from an airfield in Iran earlier this month, leaving with two types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the Washington Post reported on Aug. 29.

According to intelligence gathered by the US and other spy agencies, the delivery has been marred by serious technical failures in early tests and the Russians are displeased with the performance of the drone systems.

Russian operators continue to receive training in Iran on how to use these systems, which can conduct air-to-surface attacks, electronic warfare and targeting, on the battlefield in Ukraine, Biden administration officials told the Associated Press separately. They did not detail the “numerous failures” of the drones.

The Biden administration last month released satellite imagery indicating that Russian officials visited Kashan Airfield on June 8 and July 5 to view the Iranian drones. At the time, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan asserted that the administration has “information that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with several hundred UAVs.”

A security official from an allied country whose government closely followed the delivery told the Washington Post the Iranian drones were experiencing “a few bugs in the system” and that the Russians “are not satisfied.” The official discussed the sensitive intelligence under the condition of anonymity.

In its first instalment of hundreds of units, Iran delivered the Mohajer-6, a surveillance and combat drone capable of carrying four precision-guided munitions, and two types of Shahed drones: the Shahed-129, a long endurance drone that appears to be based on a combination of the Israeli Hermes 450 and the US MQ-1/9 Predator drone, and the Shahed-191, a stealth drone developed from the RQ-170 captured by Iran in 2011, according to the Avionist.

The drones are “considered to be among Iran’s top-of-the-line military drones, designed for attacks as well as surveillance,” the Washington Post said.