‘Yet Another BS From WSJ.’
http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/09/yet-another-bs-from-wsj.html
Andrei Martyanov is great and his blog attracts a lot of intelligent posters, but I think he is misreading the Iranian drone situation. Andrei quotes the following authority.
“Russia has no problems with drones, they are the best and there are enough of them, said Dmitry Shugaev, director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation. “We have no problems with drones. We have the best drones. We have the most wonderful drones,” he told reporters. When asked if there were enough of them, Shugaev said that “we have enough of everything.” Earlier, some media outlets and Telegram channels disseminated unconfirmed information that fragments of a drone, outwardly similar to an Iranian kamikaze drone, were allegedly found in the Russian special operation zone in Ukraine. Commenting on these reports, Shugaev urged to believe only statements from the Ministry of Defense.”
But, it would be a mistake to read too much into his expected statement...we are the best, ours are the best, we have plenty...yada, yada...:-)
Russia does have good drones, but it does not have good kamikaze drones. Iran has great Kamikaze drones which they have produced based on the American drone they captured years ago which the U.S. is very concerned about.
“Little is known about the Shahed-136. It is produced by Shahed Aviation Industries, which has a long history of drone development, including the successful Shahed-129, a Predator lookalike; the Shahed-149, which is Iran’s answer to the larger Reaper; and the Shahed-181 and -191 stealth drones based on technology reverse-engineered from a U.S. RQ-170 captured in 2011. Iranian drones may not be original, but they are effective enough to cause major concern to the U.S. and Israel.”
“The Shahed-136 is big for a loitering munition, said to be around 200 kilos/440 pounds, 12 feet long with an 8-foot wingspan and a range estimated at more than a thousand miles, but these figures are provisional.”
“According to the Iranians, the Shahed-136 is extremely accurate; their videos show it hitting multiple targets with high precision. Such videos are easily faked, but the strikes at Abqaiq were notable for their consistent accuracy. The terminal guidance system is unknown, but may include some form of optical or infra-red imager able to recognize and lock on to targets rather than simple GPS guidance.”
There is a lot of information on the internet which indicates pretty conclusively that Russia is using Iran’s drones/technology.
Russia NOW has great Kamikaze drones...:-)