New Delhi: Eleven Months Into The Invasion, The Biden Administration Is scrambling To prevent Iran from supplying drones to Russia, to the extent that the Iranian Shaheed-136 drone – also known as “lawn mowers“or” moped “- wreaked havoc in war-torn Ukraine.
The war has shown how, with their precise firepower capabilities, cheap drones, especially the Iranian-made Shaheed-136, have democratized the modern battlefield.
This is not the first time drones have carried out precision strikes. The ability to strike accurately has always been the focus of the military. But it comes at a great cost.
For example, precision guided ammunition accounted for 8 percent of the total weapons used by the US-led coalition forces against the Saddam Hussein regime in the first Gulf War (1991). But they accounted for about 84 per cent of the total expenditure incurred by the US-led coalition on ammunition.
One of the precision attack missiles the US military has is the 1,300 kg Tomahawk subsonic cruise missile, which costs about US$2 million at current prices, according to the London-based security and international affairs think tank. Royal United Services Institute (Russian).
Washington-based think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace notes
Although it is cheap, Iran’s Shaheed-136 drone retains important capabilities, including the ability to evade radar detection and operate on one. range up to 1,500 miles, By comparison, Ukraine’s US-supplied single-use Switchblade drones only operate in a range of 25 miles.
The success of Iran’s drone program despite heavy sanctions is a lesson for India’s defense and security establishment, especially the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), which has been grappling with its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program for decades. .
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) did in 2020 slammed DRDO’s UAV program is characterized by poor planning, keeping end users in the dark and violating standard operating procedures.
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Iran’s drone program concept
treated as untouchables by the westIran claims to have drones capable of delivering precision-guided missiles A flying capability of over 24 hours and a massive range of 2,000 km apart from stealth capabilities.
US based bipartisan Non-profit organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) notes while Tehran’s have technical skills often exaggerated for promotional purposes, success Its drone program represents a technological victory for the Islamic Republic.
Washington broke military and diplomatic ties with Tehran following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which led to the ousting of the US-backed Shah of Iran and the subsequent establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Iranian drone program began in the 1980s and has upgraded its military UAVs
The program is seeking to improve the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities of its fleet, and to deploy UAVs capable of conducting airstrikes.
Iran has unveiled several new drone systems over the past decade, many of which have been used in combat, demonstrating Tehran’s progress in the UAV space, UANI notes.
Tehran’s focus on drones comes as it looks for ways to monitor and harass ships in the Persian Gulf.
In 1985, the Iranian military established the Quds Aviation Industry Company as a wing of its Self-Reliance Organization. later that yearIt tested its first UAV, Mohajer-1, which proven Its utility during the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988).
The predecessor to one of the drones now being supplied by Tehran to Russia, the Mohajer-1 was crudely designed and featured a single oblique camera mounted on its nose. It is understood that this was a still camera and its film was developed only after it was recovered.
it Drones were used in the later stages of the war to photograph Iraqi infantry positions in preparation for offensives and to obtain intelligence that would prevent Iranian troops from walking into an ambush, UANI notes.
Tehran reportedly attempted to outfit these drones with rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers under each wing, but it is unclear whether its efforts ever came to fruition.
In the early 1990s, Iran developed several new variants of the Mohajer, the latest being the Mohajer-6. In addition each variant boasted increased range and flight endurance. more correct strike ability.
In the mid-200s, Iran also turned its attention to creating attack drones and now has a whole range of such uav,
Karrr, Unveiled In 2010, the first such attack was a drone. Iranian state media announced then that it had “various capabilities including carrying bombs to destroy targets” and could fly for “long distances at high speed”.
Two years later, in September 2012, Iran unveiled the Shaheed-129 – a significant step forward in Tehran’s efforts to develop a strike-capable UAV.
The new drone is believed to have been developed by reverse engineering an American RQ-170 UAV that flew over Iran to map hundreds of tunnels dug by the Iranians to conceal elements of their nuclear program .
washington Maintained It was a malfunction that caused the RQ-170 to land in an Iranian desert, while Tehran claimed it hacked the drone and forced it to land.
However, it is also It is believed that The Martyr-129 is largely based on the Israeli Hermes 450 model rather than the American one. This means that the Iranians could also capture and reverse-engineer an Israeli drone.
Western components in Iranian drones
Despite Tehran’s frequent anti-Western rhetoric, Western components are important to the Iranian drone program.
according to a Analysis Of the four Iranian drones seized in Ukraine, more than 70 manufacturers located in 13 different countries and regions, including the Western world and Asia, produced drone components for Tehran.
Conducted by UK-based investigative organization Conflict Armament Research, the analysis also shows that 82 percent of the components were manufactured in companies based in the United States.
In December last year, the Biden administration launched A detailed task force to investigate how components made in the West, including US-made microelectronics, made their way into Iranian drones.
a report good By the new York Times suggests the White House reached out to US manufacturers after pictures circulated of circuit boards from Iranian drones downed in Ukraine – which appeared to be made with chips made by US-based firms.
Nearly all manufacturers had the same response: Chips are unrestricted, “dual-use” items. And their circulation is nearly impossible to track or stop.
Security Sources Abroad Shows that Iran has mastered the art operating under the restrictions. For its drones and other military programs, Iran has managed to obtain foreign components such as engines through arms brokers or front companies which receives the required components.
India is also ‘process driven’, not ‘goal oriented’
While the success of the Iranian drone program does not come as a surprise to many in the Indian defense establishment and industry, sources say its success demands deep introspection by New Delhi.
Explaining how Iran’s focus has always been on simple design and simple enginesA source tells ThePrint, “India does not want to keep it simple. There is not a great deal between DRDO and the end user, the Armed Forces in our country. The end user is not able to decide what exactly he wants in real life scenario and DRDO promises Moon and fails to deliver.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) did in 2020 slammed DRDO’s UAV program is characterized by poor planning, keeping end users in the dark and violating standard operating procedures.
Stating that the Iranian drones are equipped with baseline counter GPS jamming systems that are capable of countering jamming to a certain extent, a second source says, “There are about 10 drone programs that the Indian armed forces are inducting and they None of these are required. For working in GPS-denied environments.
On why the Iranians were able to circumvent sanctions to pursue their drone program and India’s efforts failed, the first source says, “India is a process-driven country and not goal-oriented. Iran had a goal and worked towards it. It’s easy there because everything comes under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Sources in the defense establishment acknowledge that much of India’s focus has been on the process itself, adding that the government is trying to simplify the process. build on their argumentSources cite the IDEX program which seeks to cut through the maze of processes and fast track development of niche technology and their easy absorption. armed forces.
However, industry sources say that the government’s emphasis on adding more projects to the iDEX initiative actually works against the concept.
“The idea is to focus on a few core projects and scale it up through government funding and handholding. More projects means the pie gets divided into smaller units. The question is whether it should be quality or quantity.” says a third source in the defense establishment.
(Editing by Amritansh Arora)
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