Iran sends first shipment of drones to Russia for use in Ukraine

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

67% : Iran represents a very interesting case of having a domestic industry that grew up amid sanctions.
56% : Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported last week that Iran had begun delivering the drones.
52% : Under the arrangement, Iranian technical experts traveled to Russia to help set up the systems, and Russian military officers underwent training in Iran, the official said.
52% : "Iran is also a Russian ally.
49% : So there's lots of demand in Russia for chips, and if Russia can procure fully made drones from Iran, it doesn't need to use its precious supply of black market chips to make its own drones."
48% : Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani last month acknowledged "Iranian and Russian technological cooperation" but said Tehran prefers a diplomatic settlement to the Ukraine conflict.
45% : Gen. Seyed Hojjatollah Qureishi, the chief of the supply and logistics division of Iran's Defense Ministry, and Russia's military attache in Tehran, the security official said.
45% : But the further cementing of military ties between Iran and Russia is itself a worrisome development for the United States and its allies, experts said.
44% : That leaves Iran, which is not exposed in the same way and whose capability is homegrown, "which is what the Russians are going for," Bendett said.
43% :While Iran has supplied military drones to armed proxy groups such as Yemen's Houthi rebels, it has rarely, if ever, tested such models against the kinds of sophisticated electronic jamming and antiaircraft systems used in Ukraine, said Michael Knights, a military and security expert with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
42% : Transport planes departed Iran on Aug. 19 hauling at least two types of unmanned aerial vehicles, both capable of carrying munitions for attacks on radars, artillery and other military targets, according to intelligence gathered by U.S. and other spy agencies.
42% : And Russia has really only two countries to which it can turn to "plug the capability gap" in combat drones: China and Iran.
40% : "The bigger message - which may be lost on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin for now - is that one of the world's allegedly leading militaries is having to turn to Iran for help with key technologies, which shows just how drained their inventory is."
39% :Iran has demonstrated an ability to launch "swarm" drone attacks - involving multiple suicide drones massed against a single target - and Western governments will be watching closely to see whether Iran's UAVs can carry out such operations on an intensely contested battlefield, Knights said.
37% : Russian cargo planes have quietly picked up the first of scores of Iranian-made combat drones for use against Ukraine, U.S. officials said, in a move that underscores deepening ties between Moscow and Tehran while also highlighting Russia's struggles to supply its overstretched military.
36% :Analysts said the transfer of Iranian drones is unlikely to affect the ongoing nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, which are proceeding on a separate track and have a different objective: eliminating Iran's capacity to quickly build a nuclear bomb.

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