Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 07/28/2026 7:41:17 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
A Ukrainian strike last weekend on an Iranian cargo ship in the Caspian Sea has underscored the links between the wars that the two countries are fighting, raising tensions between them as well as the risk of more direct confrontation.
Ukraine said the ship was carrying military equipment between Iran and Russia. Iranian officials said it was a commercial vessel, and it accused Ukraine of killing a sailor in the attack.
................
Iran and Russia have had a close military relationship for decades. The most visible recent example of this is the long-range attack drones that Tehran has supplied to Moscow.
............................
The widespread use of drones, particularly the relatively cheap types provided by Iran, transformed the war in Ukraine and, more broadly, changed how military planners assess the needs of modern armies. It also forced Ukraine to develop counter-drone technologies that analysts say now rival conventional air defense systems .............................
On Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine’s intelligence services had gathered evidence that Russia was providing Iran with satellite surveillance of Gulf states and U.S. military bases in the region, helping Tehran plan and carry out attacks. He said Ukraine would share the intelligence with its Western allies.
On the same day, Ukraine struck the Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea, accusing it of transporting military cargo between Iran and Russia, without specifying in which direction — the clearest suggestion yet that Kyiv’s long-running proxy conflict with Tehran could evolve into a more direct confrontation.
Mr. Zelensky may also use the attack to try to persuade President Trump that Ukraine and the United States share the same enemy and to advocate for closer military ties. The Ukrainian leader will meet with Mr. Trump on Tuesday afternoon; he has said his top priority was securing more air defense capabilities.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
It’s a smart move - Iran is aligned with Russia, and Zelensky’s handlers want to either pull Trump further in on Ukraine’s side, or escalate energy/oil supply in the mideast to the point Trump becomes politically neutered.
Irans killed thousands of Ukrainians with its weapons to RuZZia. F them.
Congress is getting tired of Trump for now. The midterms start in earnest next month.
What’s Iran or russia going to do about it? Launch yet another bomb at the Ukrainians ?
Irony is that all sides are using the same drone tech originally made in Germany from a USA design , then reverse engineered in South Africa, Israel and Iran which Iran ships to Russia who also reverse engineered the same drone. The Shahed is a USA design from day one, which the USA just recently also started production and use against Iran of the same design again reverse engineered from the Iranian version its all one big cluster F of a family tree.
“What’s Iran or Russia going to do about it? Launch yet another bomb at the Ukrainians?”
.
Putin is waiting to see if Trump uses a tactical nuke on Pickaxe Mountain...
Did the Iranian vessel pay a toll to Ukraine?
Bro the Shahed Drone family has a 2500km range the Ukes can hit any part of that sea from home turf this is the 21st century drones can do global range if you put enough fuel to them. The Globalhawk literally has that fact in its name and does 12,000+ mile missions
Oh and drones already did air to air refueling many years ago so in practicality drones have unlimited range with the right set up. Heck our Navy has a refueling drone for human F18s and it will also be eventually used to fuel other drones in the sky. Drones have a higher first plug success rate too no surprise they can do millions of distance, velocity vectors and closing rate calculations per second something no human could ever do. SpaceX has this to art with its unmanned ISS Dragon docking it just works.
Only supporters of the HilaryHag think Russia/Putin are an enemy. Both are supporters of Western civilization and both are fighting, in Ukraine, the primary sex traffickers in Europe — which is why the EU is against Russia.
Buying military kit does not make you an ally. Don’t be childish.
This is the full irony.
The Shahed drone architecture is heavily tied to a 1980s Cold War weapon called the Drohne Anti-Radar (DAR), which was built by a German company in a joint program heavily backed and co-developed by the United States. [1, 2, 3]
The historic and corporate links between the Shahed, Germany, and the U.S. highlight a deeply ironic design lineage.
## 1. The Design Airframe: Dornier DAR (US/Germany Joint Project)
In the early 1980s, the United States and West Germany collaborated on a program to build cheap, one-way kamikaze drones to suppress Soviet air defenses (SEAD). [1, 2]
* The German Builder: West German aircraft firm Dornier GmbH was given the contract to design the physical drone.
* The U.S. Tech: American defense giant Texas Instruments built the radar-homing sensors and guidance brains for it.
* The Result: Dornier built the DAR in 1985. It featured a distinct cropped delta-wing shape with a rear propeller—an exact physical twin to the modern Shahed-136. Iran essentially adopted this exact public-domain aerodynamic configuration decades later. [1, 2, 4, 5, 6]
## 2. The Engine: Limbach Flugmotoren (Germany)
The iconic, lawnmower-like buzzing sound of the Shahed-136 comes from an engine that is entirely German by design. [7, 8]
* The Original: The drone runs on a 50-horsepower, two-stroke piston engine. This is an exact clone of the L550E engine, designed and manufactured by the German company Limbach Flugmotoren. [5, 8, 9, 10, 11]
* The Theft: In 2006, German Limbach engines were illicitly smuggled and exported into Iran. [12]
* The Clone: An Iranian front-company called Mado reverse-engineered the German design to produce a domestic copy called the MD-550. Every Shahed-136 flying today relies on this cloned German powerplant. (Even more ironically, Limbach Flugmotoren was later bought out by a Chinese aviation firm in 2011, further complicating the supply chain). [7, 9, 12, 13]
## 3. The Ultimate Full-Circle Irony: The U.S. “LUCAS” Drone
The cycle of copying has officially come full circle. After dealing with thousands of mass-produced Iranian Shaheds, the United States military reverse-engineered the Shahed-136 to create its own low-cost alternative, the LUCAS drone. [14, 15, 16]
The U.S. essentially copied Iran’s drone—which Iran had built by copying a German engine mounted on a delta-wing frame originally co-designed by the U.S. and Germany forty years prior. [1, 2, 9, 12, 14]
Would you like to look closer at the cloning process of the Limbach engine, or see how the U.S. LUCAS version compares internally to the standard Shahed? [9, 12, 17]
[1] [https://chakranewz.com](https://chakranewz.com/critical-technologies/fact-check-no-iran-didn-rsquo-t-design-the-shahed-136)
[2] [https://www.suasnews.com](https://www.suasnews.com/2025/07/die-drohne-antiradar-the-original-shahed-drone/)
[3] [https://osmp.ngo](https://osmp.ngo/collection/shahed-131-136-uavs-a-visual-guide/)
[4] [https://www.youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjb3pnwlBYU)
[5] [https://en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Shahed_136)
[6] [https://www.suasnews.com](https://www.suasnews.com/2025/07/die-drohne-antiradar-the-original-shahed-drone/)
[7] [https://www.pravda.com.ua](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/04/28/7399810/)
[8] [https://www.indiatoday.in](https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/iran-war-shahed-136-drones-us-israel-moped-sound-german-engine-middle-east-war-2884772-2026-03-21)
[9] [https://en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbach_L550E)
[10] [https://indepthnews.net](https://indepthnews.net/shahed-136-the-cheap-drone-that-changed-warfare/)
[11] [https://www.tabnak.ir](https://www.tabnak.ir/en/news/7033/shahed-136-iranian-innovation-reshaping-global-drone-warfare)
[12] [https://storymaps.arcgis.com](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/31ca7fc85b4e47f791377ded5621c360)
[13] [https://www.wisconsinproject.org](https://www.wisconsinproject.org/the-cats-out-of-the-bag-counterproliferation-lessons-from-the-curious-case-of-limbach-engines/)
[14] [https://en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HESA_Shahed_136)
[15] [https://www.youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXrgW3NxGVc&t=267)
[16] [https://www.facebook.com](https://www.facebook.com/ForcesTV/posts/shahed-made-in-iran-copied-in-russia-and-now-in-the-usthe-us-navy-has-been-testi/918101690875846/)
[17] [https://www.youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ9Cvhtf-hA&vl=en&t=227)
Asked to choose loyalty to Trump or loyalty to their own political careers, the decision will be uncharacteristically firm and quick, unlike their work in DC.
Soon to reporters: "Uh, Trump who?"
.
i was a parent so
i do remember what a diaper load smells like.
and this article is a diaper load of poo!
what did u expect-its NY Slimes...
I don’t agree with the way the OP worded it, especially the “HilaryHag” stuff. That just makes the whole discussion more hostile than it needs to be.
But calling someone a Russian troll and dismissing everything they say as Kremlin propaganda isn’t any better. There seems to be this attitude that anyone who doesn’t automatically hate Russia, or who questions U.S. policy toward Russia, must somehow be working for Putin.
Some of us simply like Russia, respect the Russian people, or don’t see every issue in black-and-white terms. That doesn’t make someone a troll. It just means they have a different opinion. Address the argument instead of throwing labels at people.
When you have nothing material to contribute, it’s always satisfying to attack the messenger.
LOL, a part Russian, married to a Russian, who chooses to live in Russia rather than America.
Yes Russia is the enemy which is why so much of our national defense and activities in the world are related to Russia as an enemy, and not just us dozens and dozens of advanced countries share that with us, Navies, Air Forces, Armies, needed to protect from Russia and their little club of evil countries, oddly enough, their friends and allies are all in the same club of “enemy” or “bad guys”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.