The Ukraine battlefield is becoming a real UAV war for the first time in the history of modern warfare
The Russian Geran-2 UAV has shown its effectiveness, causing a lot of damage to the opponent
The West accuses Geran-2 of being Iran's Shahed-136 UAV
And most recently Ukraine alleged that Russia is buying an even more advanced UAV from Iran, the Arash-2 UAV
Iran denies any involvement in any arms sales to Russia, and insists it will not sell Arash-2 to Russia for fear its technology falls into US hands
Commentators describe the Arash-2 as a real cruise missile, but with a lower flight speed, allowing the UAV to patrol above the target
There is not much information about the Arash-2
but it is known to be able to hit targets at a distance of up to 2,000 kilometers and has a significantly larger warhead than the Shahed-136
Observers believe that this UAV is designed to attack Israeli targets in Tel Aviv and Haifa
This new Iranian weapon can maneuver, redirect at low altitude
so Israeli air defense systems like Iron Dome are less likely to intercept this Iranian UAV easily
The defense observer said that Russia may have agreed to help Iran improve its missile and UAV technology
If you launch these UAVs in large enough numbers
you should theoretically overwhelm enemy air defenses because they fly at low altitudes and are cheap to manufacture
For comparison, Russia's Kalibr cruise missiles cost about $1 million each, the American Tomahawk missiles cost up to $2 million each
As for the Shahed-136 and Arash-2 UAVs, the price is only from 10,000 to 50,000 USD
While larger systems like the S-300, Buk, and Osa are practically useless against these drones
Russian platforms like Strela-10, Tunguska, and Tors, were at the disposal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and could be effective against UAVs
Many of them have, however, been reported to be destroyed by Russia
MANPADS, meanwhile, are ineffective, whose homing heads cannot capture drones since they do not emanate any infrared or radar frequency