Last week, Ukrainian drone hunters picking up the debris of the Nights of Russia in their cities found a weapon that stood out for the rest.
He had an advanced camera, an IT platform powered by artificial intelligence and a radio link, allowing an operator to drive it from Russia remotely. It also contained a new anti-skill technology of Iranian manufacturing, according to a Ukrainian drone expert.
Most Russian attack drones are black, said Serhii Beskrestnov, an electronics expert better known as flash. The new one, he said to the Associated Press, was white.
Inside, there were no marks or labels compatible with Russian manufacturing drones. Instead, the stickers followed a “standard Iran labeling system,” said Beskrestnov.
Experts who spoke at AP said that labels are not conclusive proof, but English words are in accordance with how Iran marks its drones. It is quite possible, they said, that it was sold by Iran to Russia to test in combat.
Moscow struck Ukraine almost every evening with drones designed by Irania throughout the war, now in its fourth year. They swarmed above the Ukrainian cities, their moped sound filling the air, while the air defenses and the elite shooters aim. While some wear warheads, many are lures.
Russia improves its technology and drone tactics, hitting Ukraine with growing success. But the British Defense Ministry said that Israel’s strikes on Iran “would likely have a negative impact on the future supply of Iranian military equipment to Russia”, since Tehran had provided “large quantities” of attack drones in Moscow.
The army of Israel would not comment what it struck. Although he did radical attacks in Iranian military facilities and the The United States has bombed nuclear sitesThe impact on the Iranian drone industry is not yet clear.
The anti-yellow of the last drone discovered in Ukraine contained a new Iranian technology, suggested Beskrestnov. Other components of Russian drones often come from Russia, China and the West.
Although Russia drones are based on an Iranian design, the majority are now made in Russia.
And because a large part of the technology to do them, including Iranian software and technical expertise, has already been transferred to Russia, the immediate impact on the Moscow drone program could be limited, experts said.
However, if Israel has struck installations producing drones and components – such as engines and anti -Jumeaux units – which are shipped to Russia, then Moscow could face supply shortages, experts suggested.
Moscow makes its Shahed – meaning “witness” in the Farsi – drones based on an Iranian model in a highly secure factory in central Russia.
The Alabuga factory in the Tatarstan region took delivery of its first Iranian drones in 2022 after Russia and Iran signed an agreement of $ 1.7 billion. He then established his own production lines, walking thousands.
The upgrades identified from debris in Ukraine are the last of a series of innovations that started with Russia buying drones directly from Iran in the fall of 2022, according to Alabuga disclosed documents previously reported by AP.
At the beginning of 2023, Iran sent around 600 drones disassembled to be rejected in Russia before production was located. In 2024, the design was adapted.
Specialists have added cameras to certain drones and implemented a plan, revealed in an AP investigation, nicknamed False target operation – Creation of lures to submerge the Ukrainian air defenses.
Alabuga has also changed the Shahed to make it more deadly, creating a thermobaric drone which sucks all oxygen on its way – potentially collapses the lungs, crushing the eyelashes and causing brain lesions. The size of the warhead has also been upgraded.
In at least one case, Iran has sent a Shahed propelled by the jet that Russia has “experienced” in Ukraine, said Fabian Hinz, expert in Russian and Iranian drones at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
The Air Force of Ukraine found two other examples of reaction shaheds in May, but it seems that they were not widely adopted.
It may be because Iranian design uses a very sophisticated jet engine that also feeds Iran’s cruise missiles, Hinz said. This probably makes you too expensive to use every night in Ukraine, he said, even if the engine is exchanged on a cheaper Chinese model.
The electronics of the drone recently found in Ukraine is also very expensive, said Beskrestnov, pointing its computer platform, its camera and its radio and radio. We do not know why it was deployed, but Beskrestnov suggested that it could be used to target “critical infrastructure”, including electrical transmission towers.
The previous versions of the Shahed drone were unable to hit an object in motion or change their flight path once launched. They sometimes ended up “traveling in circles throughout Ukraine before they finally reached a target”, which made them easier to shoot down, said David Albright of the Institute of International Science and Security based in Washington.
The radio link means that an operator can contact Russia’s drone, introduce a new target and potentially control many drones at the same time, experts said.
The operational remote shahed has similarities with drones that Russia already uses on the front line and is particularly shock resistant, Beskrestnov said.
There are eight antennas rather than four, on the drone, which means that it is more difficult for Ukraine to overwhelm it with an electronic war, he said.
The new drone has brands that suggest that the anti-skill unit has been manufactured in Iran in the past year and similarities with Iranian components found in the older models of Shahed, said Beskrestnov.
These advanced branches said Hinz had not been seen before on drones used in Ukraine, but were found on Iranian missiles intended for the Houthi rebels supported by Iran in Yemen.
In a statement, the Defense Ministry of Ukraine said in the last four months that he had found drones with eight and 12 antennas made in China and Russia.
Despite sanctions, Russia and Iran have continued to find ways to get Western technology.
The AI computer platform of drone can help it navigate independently if communications are blocked. Similar technology was used by Ukraine to attack planes deep in Russia during operation Spiderweb, when he used drones to target Russian air bases hosting strategic nuclear capacity bombers.
Russia improves its technology at the same time because it also changes its tactics.
Moscow pilots high altitude Shahed drones where they are out of reach of Ukrainian shooters, as well as lower to avoid radio detection.
He also leads massive group attacks against cities, especially when drones sometimes plunge a target, said the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
Drones can be used to clean a path for cruise missiles or to exhaust the Ukrainian air defenses by sending a wave of lures followed by one or two with an warhead.
Tactics seem to work.
AP collected almost a year of Russian drone strike data on Ukraine published online by the Ukrainian Air Force.
An analysis shows that Russia considerably increased its attacks after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump in January. And Russian successes have increased clearly since March – shortly before reports were emerging that Russia used Shahed drones with advanced fogs.
In November 2024, only about 6% of drones reached a noticeable target, but, in June, this reached around 16%. Some nights, almost 50% of drones crossed the air defenses of Ukraine.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said that the efficiency of Shahed is probably due to the fact that Russia draws more drones, including lures, as well as the change in technology and tactics.
But although Russia seems to have had growing success by hitting Ukraine, it is not clear if it will continue.
The strikes of Israel on Iran “certainly” harm Russia in the long term, said Albright.
Moscow, he said, “will not be able to get as much aid from Iran as it was.”
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This story was corrected to show that around 6% of drones reached a noticeable target in November 2024, not in November 2022.
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The journalists of the Associated Press Lydia Doye in London, Volodymyr Yurchuk and Illia Novikov in kyiv, Ukraine, and Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.