In December, Washington warned of an Iranian-Russian partnership on drones. A delegation from Tehran is said to have already visited the planned site for a factory in Russia. According to informants, a faster kamikaze drone is expected to be produced there.
Moscow and Tehran have pushed ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports. It is the latest sign of a deepening of cooperation between the two nations, the newspaper quoted representatives of a country allied with the USA as saying.
According to this anonymous source, a high-level Iranian delegation flew to Russia in early January to visit the planned site of the factory and work out details to get the project up and running. According to officials, countries are aiming to build a faster drone, which could pose new challenges to Ukraine's air defenses.
According to the US, Iran has already supplied Russia with hundreds of drones that have been used to attack military and civilian targets in Ukraine. But the collaboration also goes in another direction. Moscow is training Iranian pilots to fly Russian jet fighters. According to Washington, the intention is to send these planes to Tehran by the end of the year.
The White House warned in December that Moscow and Tehran could consider building a joint production line for drones in Russia. Now, the sources say, those thoughts turned into concrete plans with the Jan. 5 visit to the Russian city of Yelabuga in Tatarstan, east of Moscow.
So far, Iran has mainly supplied Russia with so-called kamikaze drones of the Iranian type Shahed-136. For example, Russia used the drones to launch attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. As the WSJ report goes on to say, an update to the Shahed 136 model is to be developed in the factory. According to the informants, the drones are expected to get a new motor so they can fly faster and farther.
