Iran has made steady progress in recent years in the design and production of military drones and has increased their handover to militant groups in the Middle East as it tries to shift the dynamics of battlefields from Yemen to Gaza.
Those efforts now extend far beyond the region.
Iran is now trying to build its global clout and commercially sell increasingly sophisticated weapons-capable drones to other countries, including countries subject to various sanctions in recent years, such as Venezuela and Sudan, according to Iranian news media, satellite imagery and defense . experts inside and outside Iran.
That has provided an important source of funding and political leverage for Iran, which is itself isolated and struggling with US financial constraints.
Now Russia can be a potential customer. Washington said this month it had information that Moscow was planning to buy hundreds of drones from Iran to bolster its arsenal for the war in Ukraine. US officials have urged Iran not to sell drones to Russia and warned of the consequences for both countries.
Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement that its military cooperation with Russia predates the war, without providing details, and its foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said in an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica that the country had no plans to supply military equipment to either side of the conflict.
Last week, the commander of the Iranian army, Brig. Gene. Kioumars Heydari, in a speech, said the country was “ready to export weapons and military equipment to friendly countries”, adding that Iranian drones were already “exploited far away and beyond our borders,” according to Iranian news media.
General Heydari did not mention Russia in his speech, but his comments came on the same day President Vladimir V. Putin visited Tehran and met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who expressed support for the war in Ukraine.
“Iran is increasingly becoming a global player in drone exports,” said Seth Frantzman, a Jerusalem-based defense analyst and drone expert.
“The fact that newer drones, such as the Mohajer-6, are now being seen in places like the Horn of Africa shows that countries see them as a potential game-changer,” he added, referring to an advanced Iranian drone that claimed to have a range of about 125 miles and the ability to carry precision-guided ammunition.
“It’s amazing cheap warfare,” said Mr. Frantzman, adding that Iranian drones cost less than other models on the market, but became increasingly sophisticated and had proven their worth on battlefields in the Middle East.
Tehran started developing drones in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war. Despite the crippling sanctions imposed on Iran in recent years for its nuclear and missile programs, it has managed to produce and operate a wide variety of military drones, used for both surveillance and attack, according to expert analysis.
That program has become a major concern for Israel and the United States in recent years. Israel has targeted drone manufacturing and storage sites in the escalating shadow war with Tehran. And the US Department of Defense said in a statement on July 21 that “Iran’s network of unmanned aerial attack systems,” or drones, was a key topic of discussion at a recent regional security meeting in Qatar.
Iranian drones are still largely on the fringe of the global market, being bought mainly by low-income or sanction-hit countries that cannot buy them elsewhere, Mr Frantzman said. Iran also faces fierce competition from powers like Turkey, whose Bayraktar TB2 drone has been bought by countries like Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Ethiopia, and has been embraced by Ukraine in its war with Russia.
A United Nations embargo aimed at preventing Iran from selling and buying weapons expired in 2020, despite protests from the United States who wanted it extended, removing a major legal obstacle, analysts said. for Iran to export its drones and its status as a global player in drone technology.
An early sign that Iran was benefiting from the lifting of the embargo and ramping up drone exports emerged last August.
In Ethiopia, as war raged with Tigrayan rebels, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed toured a frontline military air base flanked by military and intelligence officials. In the background, just visible in photos, online sleuths spotted a mysterious winged object sitting on the tarmac. It was an Iranian drone – a Mohajer-6 – armed with air-to-surface missiles.
Western diplomats confirmed Ethiopia’s receipt of Iranian drones to DailyExpertNews, and this was later publicly acknowledged by the US Treasury Department last October when they imposed new sanctions on Iran’s drone program.
In February, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Iran’s Mohajer-6 — the same drone model seen in Ethiopia — is now also being sold to Venezuela. He drew attention to images from November 2020 of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, standing next to a model of the drone during a speech in an aircraft hangar.
According to the Venezuelan Ministry of Defense and US officials, Venezuela began purchasing kits to make an earlier Iranian drone, the Mohajer-2, as early as 2007, the year the UN arms embargo was imposed on Iran. They were destined for assembly by Venezuelan state-owned weapons company CAVIM, which was placed under US sanctions in 2013 for trafficking in violation of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Non-Proliferation Act.
In July of this year, Mr. Maduro armed Iranian combat drones built with Mohajer-2 mounting kits. Israel had accused Iran in February of supplying Venezuela with precision-guided missiles for use in its drones.
Hossein Dalirian, a military analyst with close ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, posted a video to his YouTube channel in January saying Iran was exporting drones to Ethiopia and Venezuela.
“The Islamic Republic has long reached the mass production level in the production of various drones, including military surveillance and suicide drones, and now has a very large stockpile,” Mr Dalirian said in a direct message. “Since the drones are effective and some countries are enthusiastic about the drones, Iran has been exporting drones like New Mohajer-2 (M2-N) and Mohajer-6 (M6) and even Ababil (AB-2) in recent years.”
Iran has also supplied drones to Sudan, according to military analysts, satellite imagery and photographic analysis of drone wreckage, although Khartoum is also subject to a UN arms embargo. When UN peacekeepers inquired in 2008 about combat drones they saw being used in Sudan, they were told that these were a version of Iran’s Ababil-3.
Iran has both political and financial incentives to sell drones to such countries and supply them to proxy groups as part of its Middle East regional policy. The sale will allow Tehran to build international ties in spite of Western efforts to isolate it, providing an additional source of income alongside oil sold in violation of sanctions.
In May, General Mohammad Bagheri, the Supreme Commander of the Iranian Armed Forces, traveled to Tajikistan to open a factory making Ababil-2 drones.
It is the first drone factory Iran has built abroad, and the Iranian media covered the event extensively, calling it a milestone in its homegrown weapons development program and a sign that Iran was now a real player in the drone market.
The Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, said Iran is “deepening its strategic influence in the east” by exporting the drones. The government’s official newspaper, Iran, wrote that “the successful experience with Iran’s weapons in the Middle East and in Ethiopia has made Iran a major arms exporter in the region and internationally.”
According to intelligence officials, Iranian drones have been deployed in numerous attacks on Israel, as well as in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and, last October, a US base in Syria. Countries around the world are starting to notice this.
“They’ve created this viable drone capability, so it’s no surprise that other countries are interested in getting such technologies,” said Farzin Nadimi, a military analyst and associate fellow at the Washington Institute who specializes in Iran’s defense affairs. industry.
“Iranian drones should be taken seriously as a weapon,” he said.