Western concern in general about it has doubled, especially after the Russian army used Iranian drones, which caused great human and material losses to the Ukrainian side.
This concern actually began to appear in September 2019, following the drone and missile attack on two Aramco facilities in Saudi Arabia, which severely damaged the two facilities and disrupted Saudi oil exports for several months. at that time,
The Air Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards astonished the military experts in Israel, after it proved its ability to launch a guided and directed attack from a distance of more than a thousand kilometers.” that combines scientific and technological progress, independent production capacity and self-reliance.
Since 2004, the Iranians have started transporting drones, after their success in producing different types of them, to their partners in the Middle East, specifically in four directions: Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and the Gaza Strip. These aircraft are divided, according to their missions, into three sections: intelligence gathering; launching missile attacks; as well as launching suicide attacks; While its ranges vary according to its missions as well, between 15 kil
The Israeli concern is focused, in particular, on the fact that the Iranians completed the production chain themselves, and all the components of their “drones” are of Iranian origin and manufacture: from the fuselage and engine, to the navigation systems and the ability to mislead radars with a very low flight footprint, down to the ability to maneuver Between the flight range and the weight of the cargo carried on the drone, such as equipment, explosive materials or missiles. From this standpoint, Iranian drones can no longer be viewed as secondary weapons systems that can only “harass, gather intelligence and deter,” but have become a major weapon that can change the rules of the game, and if “the Iranians and their proxies use them well, they can tip the balance.” The military in the region,” and this is one of the most important findings of the “Al-Quds Institute for Strategy and Security,” in an extensive research (January 25-2022) under the title “Iranian drones are upsetting the balance of power in the Middle East.
According to reports published in Western countries, as well as in Israel, the Russian army is using various types of Iranian drones in the war on Ukraine, including the “Muhajir 6”, a large unmanned aircraft with a wingspan of about 10 meters and flying at an altitude of five kilometers.
It is intended for surveillance missions and targeting artillery batteries, especially after it has been developed with offensive capabilities. It can fly for 12 hours, and is able to track the movements of the enemy day and night.
They carry sliding bombs to hit moving targets, in addition to guided missiles that are a copy of the Israeli "Gill" missile, which Hezbollah seized from the Israeli army in 2006. The Iranians recently transferred some of these planes to the Ethiopian government, which succeeded in using them in Stop the rebel attack in the Tigray region, and perhaps also saved the capital Addis Ababa from the fall.
Through "Muhajir 6", too, the Russian commanders were able to solve a problem that was intractable to them, which is the possibility of launching short attacks, since these planes enable the commanders to obtain Photographs of recent nearby terrain, which allows them to later choose a plan that matches the field reality, when deciding to attack.
The second plane used in Ukraine is the Shahed 191, an Iranian copy of the American RQ170 surveillance and reconnaissance plane, one of which took off from Afghanistan and was controlled by Iran and landed at one of its airports, and then its engineers worked on cloning it.
This aircraft gives the Russian military the ability to strategically monitor deep into Ukraine, identify and destroy targets in the rear, and produce detailed tactical intelligence materials, making it possible to attack facilities and weapons systems on the battlefield itself.
The third plane is the Shahed 136 suicide drone, which has a wingspan of nearly two meters. It is capable of carrying 40 kilograms of explosive material and is designed to destroy point targets such as infrastructure, radars, artillery systems and headquarters. It is directed at its target with the help of satellites, and it is very effective against stationary targets, knowing that there are estimates of another model of this aircraft with a guided warhead, which allows hitting moving targets.