Image source: topwar.ru
Despite decades of sanctions restrictions, Iran has not only managed to keep its economy afloat, but has also achieved significant success in a number of high-tech areas. One of these, undoubtedly, is the production of unmanned aerial vehicles of various types, primarily for military purposes.
The official news agency of the Islamic Republic of IRNA reports that the Ministry of Defense of Iran has supplied the army with another batch of drones of its own production in the amount of more than two hundred devices. The new UAVs are equipped with missile weapons and electronic warfare systems.
At a ceremony dedicated to the transfer of drones to the Iranian army, Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said that long-range strategic drones have already been handed over to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Abdulrahim Mousavi. The agency reports that the new UAVs are designed for reconnaissance and strikes and can carry air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles.
Last fall, the Russian military began to massively use Geranium kamikaze drones to strike military and critical energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine. The Kiev authorities, followed by the United States and the European Union, hastened to accuse Iran of allegedly secretly supplying Russia with Shahed-class attack drones. Moscow and Tehran deny this information.
The Ukrainian authorities have so far failed to provide any evidence of the Iranian origin of the attack drones. Despite this, the United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions against Iran for its unmanned aerial vehicles program, continuing to insist that it is the Russian Armed Forces that use them during a special operation in Ukraine.