Ukraine captures Iranian drone used by Russians intact
Joel Gehrke - Yesterday 4:18 PM

[link to www.msn.com (secure)]

When Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, granted Russia’s request for drone reinforcements to fight the war in Ukraine, noise complaints can’t have been high on his list of expected Ukrainian responses. And yet.

"Do you know [what] we call these Iranian drones? ‘Motorbikes’ because they [make] the same sound,” Dr. Hanna Shelest, an Odesa-based senior fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis, chuckled as she told the Washington Examiner. “They're extremely loud. So, as for now ... that is our biggest problem.”

A series of Iranian drone attacks on Odesa have proven rather ineffective, according to Shelest. Russian forces have used a combination of Iranian “kamikaze” drones and larger Iran-provided vehicles that can conduct surveillance as well as airstrikes across the theater, but the defenders of Odesa have blunted several of the attacks, and Ukrainian forces now have published images that appear to show an entire Iranian drone captured intact — a potential intelligence coup for both Ukraine and the United States.

“This drone was neutralized over the Black Sea in September 2022,” a Ukrainian Military Portal publication announced. “The UAV is equipped with a multispectral sensored camera, as well as a laser rangefinder and two suspensions: one under each wing. The captured drone was carrying Ghaem-5 aerial bombs.”



That apparent success marks the first capture of such an Iranian drone, according to Shelest, and with it an unprecedented opportunity to “look what is inside them.” It’s a valuable research opportunity, with the war in Ukraine continuing to function as a proving ground for the full-scale use of drones in war.

“The advantage comes from intelligence gathering about how this Mohajer interface can be used in conjunction with other Russian or Iranian equipment,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies research analyst Ryan Brobst told the Washington Examiner. “I don't think the Iranians have made scientific breakthroughs in developing these drones, but they have made organizational breakthroughs in arranging basic technologies in a functional manner. And by trying to understand that, it could give the United States intelligence advantage in the Middle East or wherever else they encounter these drones.”

A thorough analysis of the machine could allow Ukrainians to understand any communications systems that likely connect the Mohajer to the smaller kamikaze drones, known as the Shahed 136. The Mohajer’s configuration raises the possibility that Russia uses the larger drone as a sort of scout for the smaller Shahed 136, which does not appear to have a camera.

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