Iran & Russia reach deal to manufacture weaponised drones in Moscow amid war: Report

Iran has 'secretly' reached an agreement with Russia under which Tehran will help Moscow to build unmanned weaponised drones in Russia, according to a report from Washington Post, which relies on unnamed sources in American and other western intelligence agencies. Russia has been using Iran's drones to target Ukraine's critical infrastructure, as these drones are more cost effective than Russia's own missiles, and they by and large do the task of damaging the targets. If Russia were to rely just on missiles to target Ukraine's critical infrastructure, Russia would be bleeding a significant amount of money, as missiles are not really cost effective. 

The report from the Post claims that the deal between Tehran and Moscow was finalised in the early weeks of this month. Iran is not apparently in the process of transferring design and key components to Russia. It is expected that the production will begin in Russia within 3 months. Developing a domestic assembly line, for these drones, will give a significant boost to Russia's war effort in Ukraine, as it will boost Russia's stockpiles and increase the amount of drones Russia can use to strike targets in Ukraine. 

Is the agreement beneficial for both Russia and Iran? 

These drones are known as kamikaze drones as they fly into the target and blast, and they cannot be used again. In other words, these drones are single use, and it is the quantity that matters, not necessarily the quality, which is a recurring principle in drone warfare. A stockpile of cheap but destructive weapons, being assembled domestically in Russia, will mean that Moscow can target more critical infrastructure projects in Ukraine and for a longer time, which will cause greater damage. 

Moscow's goal is to destroy power grids and water storage capabilities to such an extent that they cannot be repaired. These drones are already solving Russia's problem of low levels of precision guided munitions in the stockpile. Michael Knights, a Middle East military and security specialist with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said to the Washington Post that, "Iran is acting as a design bureau for a great power. Iran’s economical design and half-century of covert procurement of Western technology is being married to the industrial scale of a great power — Russia. That will have benefits for both Russia and Iran."