Written by – Elijah J. Magnier:
Iran and Russia had expanded the level of their strategic cooperation in various fields, most recently in space when a Russian rocket launched an Iranian satellite into orbit from the Russian launch facility in Kazakhstan. Iran will undoubtedly benefit from renewing its bank of objectives and identifying more targets related to its enemies based in the Middle East, mainly the US military bases and Israel. Moreover, Russia has signed a contract with Iran to buy 1,000 drones after Iran delivered a few planes and a simulator on which Russian officers trained: they successfully used the first drones in Ukraine. This move is considered unprecedented for a superpower to buy its drones from Iran. Tehran considers this to be recognition of its advanced and effective military industry, achieved despite 43 years of US sanctions on the “Islamic Republic”.
Russia has not dedicated much attention or adequate investment to the drone industry in the past decade. Instead, Moscow has focused on developing hypersonic missiles, which succeeded in attaining an operational level of this technology ahead of the US. Russia’s interest in military development has concentrated on nuclear warhead strategic missiles- whereas in fact drones have become necessary for every army. Iran also developed its long-range and precision missiles to reach a distance of 2000 km and they were successfully used in Iraq and Syria against different targets. However, as we can see, Tehran also focused on developing its drone industry intensively. Tehran used it in Syria and handed it over to its allies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, also transferring experiences to the Palestinians in Gaza.
According to well-informed sources in Iran, “the purchase of drones by a superpower like Russia is an important indication confirming the quality and development of Iranian industry, which has succeeded in producing the most advanced drones such as the Shahid 129 which can fly for a period exceeding 24 hours. This is what attracted Russia, especially for use in its war in Ukraine.”