After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, arms from Iran, especially various suicide drones from Iran, once effectively alleviated the pressure of the Russian army's lack of long-range firepower. Iranian suicide drones flying all over the sky have directly become a nightmare for the Ukrainian air defense forces.
How many Iranian drones did the Russian army buy, and at what cost? The answer to this question was eventually dug up by the hacker group Prana Network.
According to reports from the American "Defense Blog", "Forbes" and many other **, the hacking group Prana Network successfully hacked the mail server of the Iranian Islamic Guard Corps and found documents related to the transaction of Russian and Iranian drones.
According to the records of these documents,Russia approached Iran in 2022, asking it to be in 2In 5 years, 6,000 UAVs of various types were produced for the Russian army. The initial ** on the Iranian side is not low, with an average opening price of 37 per drone$50,000.
And after bargaining with the Russian side, the Iranian side finally made concessions on the ** side. If Russia intends to buy 6000 UAVs, then the average ** per UAV is 19$30,000. If Russia intends to buy only 2000 UAVs, then the average amount per UAV is $290,000. In the end, Russia chose to buy 6,000 Iranian-made drones of various types.
The final contract was signed** for 17For $500 million, Iran, in addition to 6,000 drones, has also transferred relevant technology, equipment and software to the Russian side. Relying on these things provided by the Iranian side, Russia eventually assembled the Russian version of the "Witness-136" suicide drone, which later became known as the "Geran-2" suicide drone at a factory about 500 miles east of Moscow.
And because when Russia and Iran signed the contract, Western countries led by the United States were carrying out comprehensive sanctions against Russia, including financial sanctions. So,Russia did not use dollars or the equivalent in rubles to settle the 17$500 million in payments. Instead, 2 was paid directly to Iran067795 tons of **.
The news raises two very interesting questions.
The first problem is that when Iran provided Russia with various types of drones, including the "Witness-136", the West generally believed that the transaction between Russia and Iran was "bartering", that is, Russia directly exchanged its own Su-35 fighter jets with Iran for various drones.
But now Russia is directly buying these drones from Iran with more than 2 tons of **, so what did Iran use to get Su-35 fighters from Russia? Is it bought directly with money, or is it exchanged with Russia with some other ** equipment, such as various ballistic missiles?
The second problem is that the West has seriously underestimated the cost of Iranian-made drones. At the beginning, the West generally believed that the cost of Iranian-made drones was about $20,000, so they praised the "good quality and low price" of Iranian-made drones. But now, Iranian-made drones are not only not "good at price", they can even be said to be a bit expensive. It is no wonder that later Russia will begin to try to produce its own "Geran-2" suicide drones.
And the "Geran-2" is not the last Russian drone based on Iranian technology, Russia is currently testing a "Eagle" suicide drone, the main technology of which is still from the Iranian "Witness-136", but at a lower cost. Capable of carrying a 16-kilogram high-explosive warhead to attack targets at a distance of up to 350 km, the final design is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024.
This news also had a very negative impact on the West and Ukraine, because they did not expect Russia to import 6,000 drones of various types from Iran in one go. If you count the amount of Russia's own domestic production, it is completely enough for Ukraine to drink a pot. Whether Ukraine can withstand Russia's "drone saturation attack" is really uncertain.
Perhaps, Zelensky should really consider negotiating with Putin and trying to end the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict by peaceful means as much as possible.