Comment The US government has examined the wreckage of an Iranian-made drone shot down in Ukraine, deepening its understanding of the drone that Russia has launched in a series of kamikaze attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure, two US officials said. Information about the drones’ structure and technology could prove critical to helping the United States and its Ukrainian allies better identify and ultimately defeat them before they reach their targets. Officials said the process has been used in the past to study weapons developed by Iran’s proxies in conflicts in the Middle East. The people interviewed for this report spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive collection of information. The Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used in this week’s attacks in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, targeted power plants and other utilities, killing at least four, authorities there said. Their use by Russian forces has underscored growing ties between Moscow and Tehran, worrying Western leaders whose sanctions and other punitive economic measures have severely undermined the Kremlin’s ability to rebuild its military after eight months of war. What is martial law and why did Putin impose it on the Ukrainian territories? Iranian drones are being launched from three Russian military bases in Crimea and another site in Belarus, a Ukrainian official said. Tehran has sent advisers to Russian-controlled areas, where they have provided the operators with technical guidance. It is not clear how the United States gained access to the drone wreckage, although the Pentagon coordinates closely with Ukraine’s military and maintains a small administrative presence at the US Embassy in Kyiv. This team is led by a one-star general. Drone over Ukraine: Death in various sizes Iran’s Shahed-136 drones can roam areas for hours until their cameras are detected a target and the drone drops on it like a bomb. The Russians use these weapons with devastating effect without danger to their troops. Length: 11 feet Maximum. Speed: 115 mph Approximate weight: 440 kg Range: About 1,100- 1,500 miles The nose contains an explosive warhead as well as cameras But the Iranian drones are larger, noisier and reportedly easier to shoot down than the tiny Switchblade 300s that the U.S. supplies to Ukraine. Length: 20 inches Maximum. speed: 100 mph Approximate weight: 5.5 kg Range: About 6 miles Sources: Defense Express, AeroVironment WILLIAM NEFF/THE WASHINGTON POST Drone over Ukraine: Death in various sizes Iran’s Shahed-136 drones can roam areas for hours until their cameras spot a target and the drone drops on it like a bomb. The Russians use these weapons with devastating effect without danger to their troops. Length: 11 feet Maximum. speed: 115 mph Approx weight: 440 pounds Range: About 1,100- 1,500 miles The nose contains an explosive warhead as well as cameras But Iranian drones are bigger, noisier and behaves easier to shoot down from the tiny US-supplied Switchblade 300 to Ukraine. Length: 20 inches Maximum. speed: 100 mph Approx weight: 5.5 kilos Range: About 6 miles Sources: Defense Express, AeroVironment WILLIAM NEFF/THE WASHINGTON POST Drones over Ukraine: Death in different sizes Iran’s Shahed-136 drones can roam areas for hours until their cameras are detected a target and the drone drops on it like a bomb. The Russians use these weapons with devastating effect without danger to their troops. Length: 11 feet Maximum. speed: 115 mph Approximate weight: 440 kg Range: About 1,100- 1,500 miles The nose contains an explosive warhead as well as cameras But the Iranian drones are larger, noisier and reportedly easier to shoot down than the tiny Switchblade 300s that the U.S. supplies to Ukraine. Length: 20 inches Maximum. speed: 100 mph Approximate weight: 5.5 kg Range: About 6 miles Sources: Defense Express, AeroVironment WILLIAM NEFF/THE WASHINGTON POST Drones over Ukraine: Death in different sizes Iran’s Shahed-136 drones can roam areas for hours until their cameras spot a target and the drone drops on it like a bomb. The Russians use these weapons with devastating effect without danger to their troops. Length: 11 feet Maximum. speed: 115 mph Approximate weight: 440 kg Range: About 1,100- 1,500 miles The nose contains an explosive warhead as well as cameras But the Iranian drones are larger, noisier and reportedly easier to shoot down than the tiny Switchblade 300s that the U.S. supplies to Ukraine. Length: 20 inches Maximum. speed: 100 mph Approximate weight: 5.5 kg Range: About 6 miles Sources: Defense Express, AeroVironment WILLIAM NEFF/THE WASHINGTON POST The Shahed is a large timber aircraft that flies very low and appears to have few metal parts, making it difficult to detect with radar and other sensors before it reaches its target. Examining debris can help overcome these challenges. The drones’ points of origin pose another challenge, the Ukrainian official said: They are too far away for US-supplied missile artillery to hit, limiting options for destroying the aircraft before they are airborne. Ukraine, which says it has destroyed more than 220 Shahed-136 drones since Sept. 13, appears to be studying the platform, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told reporters this week. Pevkur said it was regionally urgent to learn about the aircraft. “We all have to understand that we all have to put our efforts into this. To understand how it works and to understand how to abolish it,” he said. “Because it’s not just the issue of Ukraine at war right now, it’s an issue of all of us being in the situation we’re in.” Iran produces a variety of drones and has reportedly supplied them to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, among other groups. The Pentagon believes Iran-allied forces have used them against US military personnel in Syria, including in the August attack on the US-run base in Tanf. The Houthis claimed they used Samad-3 drones to attack a refinery in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last spring, and launched Samad-1 drones at Saudi Aramco facilities in other parts of the country. These drones are different from the weapons Russia is using in Ukraine. In February, the United Arab Emirates was hit by several drone and missile attacks carried out by the Houthis. At a military parade last month in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, the Houthis reportedly displayed a local version of Shahed-136. Ukraine has asked the United Nations to examine the wreckage to determine the country of origin of the aircraft. In a letter on Friday, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN called on “UN experts to visit Ukraine as soon as possible to inspect the recovered drones of Iranian origin.” The letter argued that Iran’s transfers of the drones would violate both UN sanctions against Iran and the terms of a 2015 UN Security Council resolution on the Iran nuclear deal that year. The Council held a closed-door meeting on Wednesday to hear “an expert briefing … on recent evidence that Russia has illegally acquired Iranian UAVs that it is using in its war against Ukraine,” said Nate Evans, a spokesman for the US mission to the UN , in a statement. after the session. “These UAVs were transferred from Iran to Russia in open violation of the provisions” of the resolution approving the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers. Earlier this week, France and Britain – signatories to the deal along with Iran, the United States, Germany, Russia and China – reiterated Ukraine’s accusations that sending the drones to Russia violated a provision that prohibits to Iran to fly unmanned aerial vehicles with a range of more than 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) unless specifically authorized by the council. “As outlined during today’s meeting,” Evans’ statement said, “there is ample evidence that Russia is using Iranian-made UAVs” in its attacks in Ukraine. “By procuring these weapons in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, Russia continues to defy international law in its pursuit of an irrational and brutal war.” The statement did not indicate that immediate action would be taken, although Evans said “we expect this to be the first of many talks at the UN on how to hold Iran and Russia accountable for not complying with the obligations imposed by the UN Security Council”. The Shahed hovers in the air until it spots a target, often a fixed position, and then dives into it, detonating explosives on board. Unlike larger reusable drones that launch missiles and return to a base, it flies low and slow. Ukrainians call it “the lawnmower” because of the loud buzz it makes. The distinct noise has served as a warning of its approach, allowing people to seek cover and brace themselves for the blast, which is smaller than the impact caused by conventional ballistic missiles. Drones are a major problem, analysts say. Many defense systems capable of defeating them are expensive, designed primarily for larger threats such as jets and helicopters, and take months or years to produce, limiting how many can be deployed and forcing military planners to prioritize locations deemed most vulnerable. While Ukrainian air defenses have shown some success against drones, even some of them can wreak havoc, said Samuel Bendett, an expert on the Russian military at CNA, a research group.
