Moscow and Tehran are collaborating on drone development, ballistic missiles, and technical training. The Russia-Iran relationship is becoming “a full-scale defense partnership” that threatens the Middle East and the world, a senior U.S. official said.
The Washington Post reported last month that Moscow and Tehran had agreed in secret to begin manufacture of Iranian-designed drones on Russian soil. But with Russia’s stockpile dwindling, and the start of production still many months away, Iran has committed in recent weeks to substantially increase its supply of UAVs to Moscow for the war in Ukraine, U.S. and allied officials said in interviews.
The sale of additional drones was discussed during at least two meetings between military and diplomatic officials from Russia and Iran in the past month, security officials from NATO and other U.S.-allied countries said. One senior military official briefed on details of the exchanges said Iran had agreed to supply up to 6,000 aircraft, mostly Shahed models of the type used by Russia in attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure since the summer.
Russia has relied increasingly on relatively cheap Iranian attack UAVs to supplement its dwindling stockpile of precision weapons. Drones such as the Shahed-136 — renamed the Geran-2 by Russia — can travel more than 1,000 miles and deliver small payloads of high-explosives in self-detonating attacks.but has claimed that was only before the Ukraine invasion. Multiple reports haveon drone wreckage that appear to indicate dates of component manufacture that would belie those claims.
The senior military official, citing intelligence intercepts, said Iran agreed to supply designs as well as technical supervision for the planned Russian drone factory, which is expected to be located in the Tatarstan region. Iran is to receive payments of up to $1 billion, in addition to other, still unknown inducements, the official said.
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