“As for the drones, it’s true, and we provided Russia with a small number of drones a few months before the war in Ukraine.” That was Amir-Abdollahian of Iran, quoted by IRNA in November 2022. The admission covered only a small number sent before the invasion. The mechanics of Tehran’s role since then tell a larger story.
Drones first
Straight Arrow News traced the first Iranian drones reaching Russia in 2022, in a $1.7 billion contract. Hundreds more arrived in early 2023, in pieces, for assembly on Russian soil. By June 2023 the White House had gone further. John Kirby of the National Security Council said Washington believed a drone plant that Russia was putting up with Iranian help might be running at full capacity by early the following year. Iran was shipping equipment and finished drones across the Caspian Sea, he said, often on “dark” ships with their tracking switched off. The site is in Alabuga, a special economic zone roughly 600 miles from Moscow.
Kirby also described traffic running the other way. “Russia has been offering Iran unprecedented defense cooperation, including on missiles, electronics, and air defense,” he said, adding that Tehran, he said, wanted equipment worth billions of dollars: Yak-130 trainer jets, attack helicopters and radars, on top of an announced purchase of Su-35 fighters.
The follow-up has been industrial. The Alabuga plant now turns out thousands of the Geran-2, a copy of the Iranian Shahed. Russia makes most components at home but still leans on Iranian technology and expertise, the report said. Wreckage recovered in Ukraine shows how far the design has moved on, with one drone carrying AI computing hardware, a sharp camera and a radio link for steering it from Russia. “Previous drones often just circled until they crashed,” said David Albright. “Now they’re harder to shoot down and much more effective.”
Then missiles
On September 10, 2024, Antony Blinken, the American secretary of state, told reporters in London that Russia had been given new ballistic missiles by Iran and was likely to use them. It was the first time the US had confirmed such deliveries. The missiles are the Fath-360 type, which Blinken said reach 19 to 75 miles, according to the Guardian. Ukraine had claimed that more than 200 had gone to a Russian port on the Caspian Sea. Dozens of Russian troops have learned to operate them in Iran, Blinken said, and the supply would let Russia keep more of its other weapons for targets farther from the front.
The US and Europe answered with new sanctions on Iran. Germany, France and the UK issued a joint statement calling Iran’s decision a menace to European security, and banned Iranair from European skies. Iran, for its part, wrote that week to deny supplying the weapons.
Sources
- Iran admits supplying drones to Russia
- US says attack drone factory Russia is building with Iran’s help could be operational early next year | CNN Politics
- Blinken says Russia has received new ballistic missiles from Iran | Russia | The Guardian
- Russia ramps up production on drones designed by Iran
