Russia has begun domestically producing its own version of the Iranian one-way drone that Tehran first provided to Russian forces nearly a year ago.
The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said in its Wednesday update on the war in Ukraine that Russian forces have “almost certainly started to deploy domestically produced one way attack Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (OWA-UAVs) based on Iranian Shahed designs.”
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At this point, Russia is still reliant on Iranian components. Becoming self-sufficient in the production of Shahed-style drones will most likely provide Russian forces with a more reliable supply in the future, the update noted.
Conflict Armament Research, a U.K.-based organization that investigates weapons components, released a report late last week reaching the same conclusions the British defense ministry confirmed on Tuesday. CAR investigated the remnants of two Geran-2 single-use drones last month and found “major differences in the airframe construction and in the internal units, including for navigation.”
United States officials first warned nearly a year ago about Iran providing Russia with hundreds of drones that it has used to target Ukrainian civilian infrastructure with disregard for civilian lives. Tehran and Moscow's military partnership has continued to grow over the course of Russia's war in Ukraine, while a U.S. national security council spokesman said last month that Russia's domestic drone production could be "fully operational" by early next year.
The U.S. has said Russia's manufacturing plant is in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone.
"We are also concerned that Russia is working with Iran to produce Iranian UAVs from inside Russia. We have information that Russia is receiving materials from Iran needed to build a UAV manufacturing plant inside Russia," National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told the Washington Examiner in July. "This plant could be fully operational early next year."
Kirby also explained how the drones get from Tehran to Moscow at the time. They go from Tehran to Amirabad, Iran, before then boarding a ship to cross the Caspian Sea, where they are then moved from Makhachkala, Russia to either Seshcha, which is near the Belarusian border, or Primorsko-Akhtarsk, which is near Crimea.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency confirmed in February that Russia had been using Iran's Shahed-136 one-way attack UAV, the Shahed-131 one-way attack UAV, and the Mohajer-6 multirole UAV in Ukraine. The DIA report cited the engine, wing stabilizer, air data collection, fuselage, and nose cone as points of comparison between the Shahed-136 captured in Ukraine, while the wing stabilizer itself is consistent with the shape, size, and markings of those observed in the Middle East.
An Iranian drone that Russia launched in Ukraine last fall contained parts made by more than a dozen U.S. and Western companies, prompting Western governments to look for ways to prevent unsuspecting defense companies from unknowingly assisting Iran and Russia.
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In June, the Departments of Justice, Commerce, State, and Treasury issued a joint guidance noting that the "industry should be aware of its compliance obligations due to the threat posed by the extensive overseas network of procurement agents, front companies, suppliers, and intermediaries Iran uses to obtain UAV components, all of which employ a variety of methods to evade export controls and sanctions. Industry should exercise extra vigilance due to the ubiquitous nature of many of the items, as Iran utilizes commercial-grade components in its weapons."
Last week, the Biden administration announced a new agreement with Iran that frees U.S. citizens detained in Iran in exchange for imprisoned Iranians and unfreezes $6 billion in Iranian assets. Critics have argued that such a deal could incentivize Iran or other bad actors to take Americans with the hope of negotiating for something in return.