Ukrainian soldiers use a launcher with U.S.-made Javelin missiles during military exercises in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on December 23, 2021. Photo: Ukrainian Defense Ministry Press Service.
Russia shipped €140m in cash and a selection of captured Western-made weapons to Iran as a payment for dozens of drones which will be used in the ongoing military operation in Ukraine, Sky News reported on November 13, citing an security source.
The unnamed source told the British TV network that a Russian military aircraft secretly transported the cash and three models of weapons to an airport in Tehran early on August 20. The weapons were a British-made NLAW anti-tank missile as well as an FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile and an FIM-92 Stinger man-portable air-defense system made by the United States.
According to the source, the weapons had been part of a shipment of UK and U.S. military equipment intended for Ukrainian forces that “fell into Russian hands”.
To prove these claims, the source shared with Sky News satellite imagery that they said showed two Russian the Ilyushin IL-76 military cargo aircraft at Mehrabad airport in Tehran. One of aircraft was believed to have transported the €140m and the captured Western weapons.
The first image, time-stamped 1.17am in the morning on August 20, showed two aircraft, highlighted by red lines, in the Iranian airport. In the second image, taken at 3.32am, one of the aircraft had moved to the runway and the other had turned around. In the last image, marked just past 7:00, both aircraft appeared to have gone.
1.17am local time – satellite image shared with Sky News shows two planes in Mehrabad International Airport.
3.32am local time – satellite image shared with Sky News shows two planes have moved in the airport.
7.01am local time – satellite image shared with Sky News shows the planes have gone from the airport.
The source claimed that one or both of the aircraft departed back to Russia carrying a new shipment of Iranian drones, including 100 Shahed-136 suicide drones, 60 of the smaller Shahed-131 suicide drones and six Mohajer-6 reconnaissance and combat drones.
In the recent weeks, the Russian military attacked dozens of targets in Ukraine with new suicide drones, the Geran-1 and 2, which are said to be copies of Iran’s Shahed-131 and 136. The Shahed-131 has a range of 900 kilometers and a 20 kg warhead, while the Shahed-136 has a range of up to 2,500 kilometers and a 40 kg warhead.
The Russian military has been also using Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drones against Ukrainian forces. The combat drone is capable of carrying a multispectral reconnaissance payload and up to four precision-guided munitions. The drone has an endurance of more than 12 hours and an operational range of 200-500 kilometers.
According to Sky News source, Western weapons supplied by Russia could give Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps the ability to study Western technology and potentially copy it.
“We think that the Iranians have proven that they have an efficient reverse-engineering system, as we can see with the UAVs they have reverse-engineered from the US’s UAV captured in 2011,” the source said.
“It seems that Iran also wants to benefit from the war [in Ukraine] by receiving from the Russians Western capabilities that will be useful for them in the future – as happened in the past.”
In August, Russia denied that its military had used Iranian drones in Ukraine operation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that only Russian-made weapons are being used in the special military operation.
Several recent reports in the mainstream media, MSM, said that Iran also supplied or preparing to supply ballistic missiles to Russia. These reports are yet to materialize. Military cooperation between Russia and Iran is not new. It never been under the scope of the MSM as much as now, however. The West is apparently trying to use the conflict in Ukraine as an excuse to attack both countries.
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If Iran is supplying drones to Russia it should be honest about it. Lying just hurts your credibility.
Iran supplyed a concept of low tech, low cost, high efficiency drones to Russia because Russia took the wrong way of USA to chase ever more expensive drones for a mobile war which did not match the situation. Russia hits enemy with Russian drones. 😎 Better?
This is war, information is a weapon of war and credibility is worth exactly zero fucks. The USA is scouring the world trying to buy Soviet built weapons from every African / Asian tin pot dictator to give to Ukraine and the Western media goes nuts over Iran supplying drones to Russia.
Well said, HB-Norica.
Why should only Iran be honest? And as far as credibility is concerned, what good did it bring to Iran so far, you wouldn’t believe it anyway!
Two Russian trasport ???? Only one can take all of this cargo…
This is already old Western stuff, they did not give away the latest technology to the bankcrupt CIA project called Ukraine.
I bet Iran, Russia, China, India can develop their own weapons. Maybe they can take the USA by surprise.
They can develop their own weapons, hell North Korea even has state of the art Nukes. It’s not only about copy something. Iran, Russia, China, NK can also study these weapons and try to find it’s weak points, ways to jam it remotely, what kind of armor they can’t penetrate etc.
The old stuff still works pretty well. And lots of other nations have the technology now. Progress isn’t just limited to Europe and the US. Except when it comes to trannies and homos. That is the wests progress.
Oh, but please don’t forget to send some copies of the blue prints & components to our North Koreans brothers. And , of course also to the PRC.
An excellent affair. Finally russians make something worth. The iranians will reverse engineering all those shithole murican taxpayers armament industry crap and will downsize it to be real dangerous. Also they will make that with 100 times less money. American citizens are stupid as fuck. letting those bandits to steal theirs money when degrading theirs own living standards. Just like a sheep like anyone else. Also I highly suggest to make that with North Koreea. That will give uncle Shlomo a very big pole in his ass.
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We must hand it to them, they have amazing analysts!
Based on some grainy pictures, they are able to deduct interesting things, like the number of things loaded to an airplane (it doesn’t matter if it’s possible to put 100 Shahed-136 + 60 Shahed-131 + 6 Mohajer 6 drones.in 2 Il-76 cargo planes) and even count the amount of alleged money in alleged crates. I wish we had people like them… Our stupid analysts need numerous high-res pics from multiple angles and still rely on eyes on the ground to be able to speak with >%90 certainty.
Before this I was amazed by their ability to determine that a certain blob on a pic is not only a transport, but a transport that carries Russians! I still chuckle at the arrow with 1.79m written beside it.
Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with sharing information and spoils of war, the exact same thing the Ukies and Americans are doing with Russian Geran drones and the single Mohajer-6 which was delivered to Ethiopia, not Russia.
Two explanations: I saw in different places that people pronounce and translate these 2 words mistakenly. One is Shahed (pronounced like Shawl-Head) meaning observer/witness and the other one is Shahid (pronounced like Shall-Heed) meaning martyr. And about hypersonic missiles, the speed of over 5 mach alone isn’t enough for something to be categorized as a hypersonic system. Some SRBMs (mach 3-5), most MRBMs (>mach 10) and all ICBMs (mach 20-24) travel much faster than that in the coasting stage/reentry. Even our SRBMs have a velocity of over 3km/s (~ mach 8.7 ASL) on the impact but not counted as a hypersonic missile.
the US’s moaning and calls for a ceasefire coincided with Iran suddenly procuring hypersonic missiles. The US is shortsighted, it thinks it gets to attack everyone and that nobody else has initiative, when in fact they do and the US has many weaknesses and pressure points to bring it to heel
sky news reported this did they? In that case it’s only fake news.