At the moment, the use of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones (known as Geran-2 in the RF Armed Forces) has actually been confirmed. Герань-2

The Russians brought Iranian instructors to the occupied Kherson Oblast and Crimea. The Iranians are based in Zaliznyi Port, Hladivka and Dzhankoya. They will teach Russians to properly kill and terrorize the civilian population of Ukraine, in particular with the help of Герань-2 kamikaze drones. It is noted that it is the instructors who control the launch of “shahids” and other Iranian drones on Ukrainian civilian objects.

“Shahed-129” has been produced in Iran for more than ten years. UAVs are actively used by the aerospace forces of the Iranian IRGC in Syria. In fact, this is a copy of the Israeli Hermes-450 or the American MQ-1. Good strike drone.

The Shahed-191 Saek is a copy of the American RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone, which was planted by Iranian military personnel in December 2011, localized by the Iranians. The UAV is equipped with a jet engine, is capable of bypassing air defense detection systems and is designed to strike deep behind enemy lines.

How effective are Iranian UAVs?

It is difficult to judge the effectiveness of Iranian drones in the context of traditional hostilities. In recent years, the Iranians have only been involved in hybrid wars and counter-terrorism operations.

Iranian products are extremely successfully used by Iran’s allies – the Lebanese Hezbollah, Ansarallah in Yemen and Shiite formations in Iraq (regular strikes on American bases are also carried out by Iranian UAVs).

‘Iranian instructors directly control the launch of drones on civilian targets in Ukraine’
Moscow reportedly brought Iranian personnel affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the occupied regions of Ukraine to train Russian troops to use Iran-made drones. 

Houthis from the Yemeni Ansarallah group almost regularly strike military, industrial and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia at a distance of up to 1000 km from the border. And this despite the fact that the Saudis for many years were armed with the American Patriot air defense systems, which did not react to air targets in any way.

How will Iranian UAVs help the RF Armed Forces?

From the point of view of the urgent need for intelligence assets, the decision to purchase UAVs from the Iranians, who have created a combat-ready unmanned fleet in the face of economic sanctions, was “slightly” belated, but indeed correct. Work on the bugs, albeit slowly, is underway.

So far, only kamikaze drones have been documented, but Geran-2 has already shown effectiveness in destroying artillery crews of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and caused panic in the Western media due to the high effectiveness of attacks on strongholds and weapons of Ukrainian formations.

As for strike or strategic UAVs, time will tell how Iranian drones will perform in active combat operations. But their presence will make it possible to solve the long overdue problem of searching for and detecting enemy firing positions and target designation of artillery.

And in case of their successful use, we should expect the appearance of other types of Iranian UAVs. The range of drones produced by Iran is quite wide, and the Ukrainian theater of operations is excellent for testing.


The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine informs that the Russians continue to transfer Shahed-136 kamikaze drones to the territory of Belarus

Belarus receives Iranian kamikaze drones Shahed-136 (renamed Geran-2 in the Russian army). As of October 10, 32 of these UAVs were brought into the country, and 8 more are planned to be delivered by October 14.

Belarus also provides the Russian army with logistics and ammunition from its warehouses. In particular, a railway train with ammunition arrived at the Kirovskaya railway station in Crimea – 12 wagons / 492 tons, which was sent from 43 arsenals for storing missiles and ammunition of the Belarusian Armed Forces (DOBRUSH, Gomel region).

In the near future, it is planned to move 13 echelons with weapons and military equipment (219 platforms), ammunition (28 wagons) and military equipment from the arsenals and storage bases of the Belarusian Armed Forces.

The main “suppliers” are:

– 46 arsenal for storing missiles and ammunition (Bronnaya Gora, Brest region);
– 43 arsenal for storing missiles and ammunition (Dubetskoye, Gomel region);
– 391 artillery ammunition base (Bobr, Minsk region);
– 969 tank reserve base (Ureche, Minsk region);
– 288 vehicle reserve base (Starye Dorogi, Minsk region).

Cargo should arrive at the railway stations “Kamenskyaa” (Kamensk-Shakhtinsky) and “Martsevo” (Taganrog) of the Rostov region.

By Treadstone 71

@Treadstone71LLC Cognitive Warfare Training, Intelligence and Counterintelligence Tradecraft, Influence Operations, Cyber Operations, OSINT,OPSEC, Darknet, Deepweb, Clandestine Cyber HUMINT, customized training and analysis, cyber psyops, strategic intelligence, Open-Source Intelligence collection, analytic writing, structured analytic techniques, Target Adversary Research, strategic intelligence analysis, estimative intelligence, forecasting intelligence, warning intelligence, Disinformation detection, Analysis as a Service