[ganeemead]

Highly doubtful. That would require dozens of Iranian specialists and possibly hundreds of them when Russians decided to use the 2400 of the things just purchased. Much simpler to bring a few Iranian instructors in and train Russians to use them.

[dennisw]

“Highly doubtful. That would require dozens of Iranian specialists and possibly hundreds of them when Russians decided to use the 2400 of the things just purchased. Much simpler to bring a few Iranian instructors in and train Russians to use them.”

As soon as the drones arrived, they were used. This tells me Iranians were piloting them. You think they can train Russians this fast? Perhaps. Because the pilots/ both Russian and Iranian/ can be in a comfortable location in Russia. A thousand miles away from the drone action in Ukraine.

[Rockingham]

Hmmm, would the Iranian trainers be fluent Russian speakers, or would the trainees be Russians fluent in Farsi? Just how many are to be found with those qualifications among the limited ranks of drone pilots and technicians in the respective militaries? If not, then a multitude of translators must be found and assigned or drafted and the training course extended to deal with the inefficiency of translation.

In any event, the written manuals must be translated from Farsi to Russian and printed to cope with the language difficulties inherent in using gear with controls captioned in a foreign language. How long will that take?

It seems to me that if one were in a pinch for time, such as if combat was underway, the first resort would be to bring in lots of Iranian crews and pilots to use the drones against the Ukrainians while developing the necessary manuals and training for Russian drone pilots and crews. And I imagine that the Iranians will charge a lot of coin for such service.