In the last few weeks , the conflict in Ukraine has taken a new turn.
Russia is now using Iranian made Shahed drones to hit targets in Ukraine which include civilian
as well as military assets.
Russia’s unleashing of successive waves of drones over Ukraine has caused significant
damage.
Ukraine's energy minister has said Russia has hit at least half of Ukraine's thermal
generation capacity and caused billions of dollars of damage in attacks since Oct. 10,
though not all stricken power units have stopped working completely.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on October 17, that in the last week alone, the Russian
military has struck through over a hundred Iranian kamikaze drones against residential
buildings, power stations, sewage treatment plants, bridges, and playgrounds in several
Ukrainian cities
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why Russia is extensively using Iranian Shahed
drones in Ukraine ? Let's get started.
The Shahed-136 drones that Russia has rebranded as Geran-2 are packed with explosives and
are preprogrammed to loiter overhead until they nosedive into a target.
According to reports, the delta-wing Shahed is 3.5 meters or 11.5 feet long, 25 meters
or 8 feet wide and weighs approximately 200 kilograms or 440 pounds).
It’s powered by a 50-horsepower engine with a top speed of 185 kph or 114 mph and has
a maximum range of 2,500 kilometers or 1,500 miles.
It is thought to have a 40-kilogram or 88-pound explosive charge.
The drone is fired in multiples from a launch rack (in batches of five upwards).
Shahed has several characteristics that make it suitable for Russia
1.
The Russian Air Force has not been able to suppress the Ukrainian air defense.
So, sending bombers and strike aircraft is a risky proposition.
Apart from the fact that loss of even a single aircraft is a multi million dollar setback
,it is also to be noted that trained pilots are limited in number.
2.
It is well known that Russia is running out of precision long range weapons stocks.
It is also facing issues in producing new ones due to Western sanctions that stop chip
export to Russia which are required in this kind of weapons.
Ukraine’s defense minister recently alleged that Russia has used up most of its high-precision
missile arsenal . Its stock is down from 1,844 on the eve of Russia’s invasion to 609 by
mid-October.
3.
Shahed is cheap, only $20,000 apiece.
It is only a tiny fraction of the cost of a more conventional, full-size missile.
For example, Kalibr cruise missiles that have seen widespread use cost about $1 million
each.
4.
Shahed is tiny - radar & IR signature is small, making it hard to detect and when used in
large numbers like a swarm , some of these will surely go through and create havoc.
This is similar to Japan’s World War II-era kamikaze pilots who would fly their explosive-laden
aircraft into U.S. warships and aircraft carriers during the war in the Pacific.
5.
This conflict has turned into a war of attrition and if Ukraine is having to deploy costly
missiles to intercept these cheap drones, then it is essentially a win for Russia.
6.
Because of the portability of the launch frame and drone assembly, the entire unit can be
mounted on the back of any military or commercial truck, enabling mobile shoot-and-scoot operations
that can thwart countermeasures.
7.
The continuous buzzing of the propeller-driven Shahed drones dubbed “mopeds” by Ukrainians
induces anxiety and has psychological impact.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted the terror element, posting on social media:
“The whole night, and the whole morning, the enemy terrorizes the civilian population”.
Terror weapons are of course nothing new — Nazi Germany employed them during World War II
in the form of the V-1 flying bomb or “buzzbomb.
With Shahed, Russia would hope to degrade Ukrainian morale.
Iranian drone supplies are having an impact and this has made the West do something about
it.
The United States agrees with British and French assessments that Iran supplying drones
to Russia would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution that endorsed the 2015 nuclear
deal between Iran and six powers, U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.
The European Union has agreed to hit Iran with sanctions over its supplying drones to
Russia in the war with Ukraine, a top EU body said Thursday.
The decision came "in record time" after three days of EU discussion, according to a pair
of tweets from the Czech Presidency of the EU Council.
Three individuals and "one entity responsible for drone deliveries" will have their assets
frozen.
Another four Iranian entities could also receive EU sanctions.
Russia has not officially admitted to using drones manufactured in Iran in its invasion
of Ukraine, but their use has been documented in numerous attacks this fall.
Iran has many UAVs ranging from small, light short-range systems to medium to heavy for
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) usage.
Iranian armed forces are known to operate more armed drones than many other nations
that have twice their defense budget, and that too under crippling western sanctions.
There are reports that Iranian personnel are assisting Russians on how to effectively deploy
this drone.
Some reports also indicate , Iran may provide Russia with surface to surface missiles.
This is not a good situation for Ukraine as winter knocks on the doors.
It remains to be seen how things pan out in the coming days.