WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has launched a wide-ranging effort to halt Iran’s ability to manufacture and supply drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, an effort that has echoes of its years-long program to control access from Tehran to exit nuclear technology.
In interviews in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, a range of intelligence, military and national security officials have described an expanding US program that aims to stifle Iran’s ability to produce the drones, make it more difficult for the Russians to launch the drones. unmanned “kamikaze” aircraft and – when all else fails – to provide the Ukrainians with the defenses needed to shoot them out of the sky.
US troops are helping the Ukrainian military target the locations where the drones are being prepared for launch – a difficult task as the Russians are moving the launch sites from soccer fields to parking lots. And they are rushing with new technologies designed to provide early warning of approaching swarms of drones, to increase Ukraine’s chances of taking them down, with everything from gunfire to missiles.
But all three approaches have run into significant challenges, and the drive to cut off critical components for the drones is proving as difficult as the decades-old drive to deprive Iran of the components needed to build the delicate centrifuges that power it. used to produce bomb-grade near-uranium.
The government’s fight to crack down on Iran-supplied drones comes as Ukraine uses its own drones to strike deep into Russia, including an attack this week on a base housing some of the country’s strategic bombers. And it comes as officials in Washington and London warn that Iran is about to supply Russia with missiles to help alleviate Moscow’s acute shortage.